Fodder and Pasture Plants. 
INTRODUCTORY. 
ie dawn of civilization is closely associated with primitive 
agriculture. If we try to unveil the history of a race we 
often find it hidden in myths and legends. When it is 
accessible, we see that a people, after slumbering for centuries in the 
night of barbarism, advances slowly to the realization of higher 
ideals. The awakening is always connected with the cultivation of 
the soil, and agriculture is therefore the foundation upon which the 
progress of humanity rests. Its development depends upon the 
climate and the natural possibilities of a people. Climate is largely 
responsible for the fact that some tribes still follow the migrating 
life of the nomad, while others have settled down in fixed dwellings. 
In the warmer parts of the world, where it is easy to grow cereals 
and other plants, agriculture is much older than far north, where 
climatic conditions are less favourable. 
At first only such plants were grown as would serve for human 
food; natural meadows and pastures provided for domestic animals. 
Even now there are large areas where no special efforts are made to 
secure food for stock. With increasing population, however, more 
ground must be devoted to cereals for human food, and the value of 
land rises. Natural pastures largely disappear and the farmer must 
grow other crops as food for stock during different seasons. The 
cultivation of fodder and pasture plants has reached its greatest 
perfection in temperate regions, where the animals cannot graze 
during the winter. 
Compared with the cultivation of cereals, the introduction of 
artificial meadows is very recent. The oldest known were those of 
the Romans. Clovers, which form their most essential part, came 
into general use as late as the sixteenth century, since which time 
the importance of forage plants has been more and more realized. 
Two groups of plants are used for fodder and pasture, viz., the 
grasses and the leguminous plants, representing two large families 
botanically known as Gramineae and Leguminosae. All the plants 
dealt with in this book, except Rape, belong to one of these families. 
Rape belongs to the Mustard family, Cruciferae. 
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