NATIVE LEGUMES OF NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. \) 



WILD LEGUMES IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



After this paper was prepared the writer's attention was called to 

 Bulletin No. 100 of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 the pertinent parts of which are quoted below. It was a surprise to 

 find such close agreement between observations made in two States 

 where conditions are so different. 



The wild plants of this kind (legumes), next to grasses and composites, form a larger 

 part of our native flora than any other family of plants. * * * Their protein con- 

 tent is usually high and they also then make most useful feeding stuffs. (P. 97.) 



Practically all of the wild Maryland species examined have tubercles on the roots. 

 (P. 100.) 



But when we consider the large areas of uncultivated land in Maryland where no 

 crop is or will be grown under present conditions, the value of wild legumes in building 

 up such land by adding humus and nitrogen becomes much more worthy of consider- 

 ation, especially if we remember the fact that most of our waste woodland and fields 

 are covered with a natural growth of leguminous plants doing their work without a 

 particle of labor on the part of the owner. On many thousand acres of waste land over 

 one-half of the weed growth is composed of nitrogen-gathering leguminous plants. 

 * * * A great many of these species grow with the greatest ease on dry, sandy, or 

 sterile land where other plants would not succeed until legumes had opened the way. 

 (P. 100.) 



Legumes of some kind are in every climate and soil. In many parts of Maryland 

 legumes form one-fourth to three-fourths of the wild plants. (P. 106.) 



Approved : 



James Wilson, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



Washington, D. C, April 23, 1909. 



ICir. 31] 



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