Kerzlzzrky Forage Pl¢m!s— T lac Clovers and their Allies. 33
Muczrvza ulilis (VELVET BEAN).·W€ have had few forage
plants on the Experiment Farm that make such a rampant
growth as this. It covers the ground thickly, spreads beyond
the boundaries of the plots, carpeting all adjacent paths, then
if furnished with a trellis climbs up this to the extremity
W and launches into the air, and when by its weight brought back
to the support, the new terminal growth wraps itself again and
again about the old, forming a confused and tangled mass of
leaf and vine, the like of which is produced by no other
forage plant grown by us. But its very rankness of growth
makes it a somewhat unmanagable plant.
It does not ripen its seeds at Lexington, and I have never
heard of its doing so elsewhere in the State. In 1900 it pro- .
duced its singular long purple flowers early in October, when
the pods began to develop very rapidly and in large numbers.
They appear i11 clusters in the axils of the leaves. The very
young pod at first carries at its extremity the long style of
the flower, and becomes darker as it grows, from the presence
of a dense coat of erect black hairs, the whole having the ,.
effect of plush. In our plot it reached a length of 2%
inches, and a diameter of }é inch, being rather short and
stout, but produced no mature seeds, although not destroyed
by frost until October IQ, at which date some flowers were ‘
istill being produced. The ripe seeds are not less remarkable
than the plant, flower and pod. They are roundish, about %
inch in length, the scar with protruding lip, the ground color
` whitish, mottled with brown, like a bird’s egg.
In Florida the fodder is cnt several times, and the yield
during a season sometimes exceeds four tons of hay per acre.
_ It is claimed that cowpeas will produce about as much fodder,
though as seen growing the velvet bean impresses one as
much the more productive. The fodder is nutritious, contain-
ing about the same per cents. of fat and protein as the cowpea.
Very decided improvement in soil has been secured in southern
states by plowing under the velvet bean stubble.
I Omzbryrhis miiaa