CLASSIFICATION OF FIELD CROPS 13 



vegetables that find a wide market are sometimes grown in 

 large areas by extensive, or field, methods. 



5. Classification of Field Crops. It is rather difficult to 

 make a definite classification of field crops, for certain uses 

 may be made of a certain crop under one set of conditions 

 and other and verj'- different uses under another. New uses 

 are continually being made of the various crops, so that a 

 classification made now might be materially wrong in a few 

 years. The piincipal field crops can, however, be included 

 in some one of the following classes: Grain, hay and forage, 

 fiber, tuber, root, sugar plants, and stimulant. This classi- 

 fication is based in part on the portions of the plants which 

 are used, and in part on the uses to which they are put. 

 Medicinal plants and a few others of a miscellaneous nature 

 are not grown to any considerable extent and need not be con- 

 sidered at length. 



6. Relative Importance. The 1910 census reports show 

 that the total area in field and garden crops in the United 

 States was, in 1909, 311,000,000 acres, of which all but about 

 10,000,000 acres were in field crops. These 10,000,000 

 acres were devoted to garden and orchard crops. The to- 

 tal area of improved farm land was more than 478,000,000 

 acres, leaving something like 167,000,000 acres in pastures 

 and improved woodlands. Of the 311,000,000 acres in field 

 crops, about 191,000,000 acres, or about 61 per cent, were 

 in grain crops; 72,000,000 acres, or about 23 per cent, in 

 hay and forage crops; about 10 per cent in fiber crops, and the 

 remainder in tuber, root, sugar, stimulant, and miscellaneous 

 crops. 



VALUE AREA ^ 



m^mm^^mamm^^m^^aam^^ grain ^^^■■^^■■■iii^ 



FORAGE ^m^mm 



FIBER HHl 

 ALL OTHERS ■ 



Figure 1. — Relative areas and values of the important classes of farm crops. 



