CHAPTER XII 

 HAY AND HAY-MAKING 



347. Principal Hay Plants. The principal perennial hay- 

 plants in the United States are timothy and clover in the 

 North Central and Northeastern states, Johnson grass in 

 the South, and alfalfa in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and 

 the Rocky Mountain and Pacific states. Among other 

 perennial hay plants which are grown in more or less Umited 

 areas are redtop, orchard grass, brome grass, western wheat 

 grass, and alsike clover. Numerous annual plants are also 

 grown for hay, including foxtail millet, field peas, cowpeas, 

 soy beans, wheat, rye, barley, oats, and hairy vetch. Any 

 of these plants may be grown alone, or thej^ may be grown 

 in various mixtures of two or more. 



348. Production of Hay in the United States. The 

 greater part of the hay grown in the United States is pro- 

 duced in the Northeastern and North Central states. The 

 Western states are coming to be of considerable importance 

 as producers of hay, largely through the general use of alfalfa 

 on irrigated land, with its high yield per acre. New York 

 produces nearly one tenth of the annual hay crop of the 

 country, while New York, Iowa, and Pennsylvania, the three 

 leading states, show an average annual yield of about one 

 fourth of the entire crop of the United States. The pro- 

 duction of hay is, however, more generally distributed than 

 that of any of the cereal crops except corn. 



The annual production of hay in the United States for 

 the ten years from 1908 to 1917, as reported by the Bureau 

 of Statistics, averaged 72,669,000 tons, grown on 50,424,000 

 acres and valued at $871 ,015,000. This is sUghtly more than 

 the average annual value of either the cotton or the wheat 



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