114 



DESCRIPTION OF FEEDING STUFFS 



a hopeful sign of agricultural progress in this country. The legumes 

 furnish the cheapest sources of nitrogen and nitrogenous feed com- 

 ponents available to the farmer, and by their culture he will, in a 

 measure, become independent of both fertilizer and feed manu- 

 facturers. 



The most important species of the legumes adopted for feed- 

 ing farm animals are clover (red, mammoth, alsike, white, crimson, 



Japan), cowpea, soybean (Fig. 

 15), vetch, pea, bean, beggar 

 weed, and peanut. Brief men- 

 tion will be given in the follow- 

 ing pages of these different 

 species that are of special im- 

 portance as forage crops. 



Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) Q 

 (Fig. 16) is one of our most 

 valuable forage plants. In the 

 western part of the United 

 States it ranks first in impor- 

 tance as a soiling and hay crop. 

 It was introduced into Cali- 



fornia from Chili in 1854 > and 

 gradually spread over the irri- 

 gated regions of the West, and 

 from there eastward, until it is 

 now grown in every State in 

 the Union, as well as in Canada. 

 It requires a deep, well-drained 

 and fertile soil, with a perme- 

 able subsoil, for its best develop- 

 ment, and under optimum con- 

 ditions will yield enormous crops 

 of forage. Several cuttings are 

 obtained during the season from alfalfa fields, the number increas- 

 ing from two to six or more as we go southward. The highest 

 yields are obtained on the irrigated land in southern California 

 and the southwestern States, where eight to ten tons of hay per 

 acre are frequently obtained. As it generally takes about four tons 

 of green alfalfa to make a ton of hay, this corresponds to a yield of 

 forty tons of green alfalfa per acre. Good alfalfa fields in the 

 humid regions will yield at the rate of four to five tons of hay per 



6 In Europe and Canada often called Lucern. 



FIG. 15. A soybean nitrogen factory. The 

 free nitrogen of the air is changed by the 

 bacteria in the root nodules into forms that 

 are used by the host plant for the elaboration 

 of protein compounds. (Wisconsin Station.) 



