i88 FUNDAMENTALS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Annual Legumes constitute a much more important 

 crop in the Southern States than elsewhere. Among 

 the important ones for summer crops are cowpeas, soy 

 beans, velvet beans and lespedeza; for winter crops 

 crimson clover, vetches and bur clover. In the North 

 and West, Canada peas are by far the most important 

 crop of this group. 



Origin of Our Forage Crops. It is an interesting 

 fact that most of the forage crops grown in the United 

 States are native to the Old World. This is the case 

 almost without exception of plants which are broad- 

 casted thickly, as in meadows and pastures where the 

 plants have to occupy the ground to the exclusion of 

 other plants. Most American grasses lack sufficient 

 aggressiveness to be thus utilized. On the other hand 

 some of the most important of American crops are 

 natives of America, but these, without exception, need 

 to be cultivated so as to protect them against weeds. 

 Among such crops are corn, tobacco, cotton, potatoes, 

 sweet potatoes, beans and others. While the aggres- 

 siveness of many Old World plants makes them invalu- 

 able for forage, it also makes others very troublesome 

 as weeds, nearly all of our worst weeds having come 

 to us from the Old World. 



Meadow Mixtures. Mixtures of forage crops in 

 permanent meadows often give much better results 

 than pure cultures. 



i. In the Northern States the most commonly 

 grown hay mixture consists of timothy and red clover. 

 2. South of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers timothy and 

 clover do not as a rule give satisfaction. Here a mix- 

 ture of 12 pounds of orchard grass, 12 pounds of tall 

 meadow oat grass and 6 pounds of alsike clover is 

 much more satisfactory. 3. It is frequently desirable 

 to plant low-lying, poorly drained lands into a perma- 

 nent meadow or pasture. In general, the best com- 

 bination for this purpose is redtop and alsike clover. 



Pasture Mixtures. Mixtures of forage plants for 

 pastures are desirable not only to keep down weeds, 



