GREEN FORAGE AND HAY CROPS 



99 



More than one-half of the entire acreage in hay and forage crops 

 is grown west of the Mississippi, but the individual crops are quite 

 differently distributed. The timothy and clover mixed, or clover 

 and timothy alone, are grown largely east of the Mississippi and 

 in the North, while prairie hay, grain hay, and root forage are 

 grown more extensively in the West than elsewhere. 6a 



Yields of Hay. The average yield of hay per acre in 1909 for 

 the entire country was 1.35 tons, the maximum average yields being 

 credited to the Pacific and mountainous divisions, with 1.73 tons, 

 and the lowest average yield to the South Atlantic division, with 

 1.20 tons per acre. These are average figures only and do not show 

 the yields secured by good -methods of farming or on irrigated land. 

 The yield of hay obtained is dependent on various factors, as the 

 character and condition of the soil, the method of management as 

 to fertilization, seeding, time of cutting, etc. A good hay field 

 will yield from two to three tons of timothy and clover hay to the 

 acre. There are, however, authenticated reports of yields of over 

 7 tons of well-dried timothy and red top hay, obtained in two cut- 

 tings on a Connecticut farm, and an alfalfa field yielded at the rate 

 of 6 tons to the acre. 7 These yields were obtained by intensive 

 culture and heavy fertilization and seeding; they show what can 

 be done under optimum conditions in humid regions. In the semi- 

 arid regions under irrigation still heavier yields are secured regu- 

 larly year after year, e.g., in central and southern California, on 

 irrigated land, alfalfa will yield 7 or 8 cuttings, averaging a ton of 

 hay, or more, to the acre per cutting. 



Chemical Composition. The chemical composition and con- 

 tents of digestible components of hay crops will be seen from 

 the table : 



Composition and Digestibility of Hay Crops, in Per Cent 



"a Farmers' Bui. 943; Mass. Bui. 134; Vt. Bui. 171; Cornell (N. Y.) 

 Reading Courses iii, 65. 



'Cyclopedia American Agriculture, vol. ii, p. 436, 



