CHAPTER VIII 



CHOOSING A FORAGE CROP: EXPERIMENTAL 

 FEEDING TRIALS 



THERE is no best single forage crop, or succession of 

 forage crops, for all farms and all seasons. Differences 

 in climate, rainfall, and soil make it obvious that a crop 

 well adapted to the South or West might prove an utter 

 failure in the North or East. Normal variations in 

 temperature and rainfall from year to year result, also, 

 in wide differences in the quality and value of any par- 

 ticular crop grown on the same soil in different years. 

 The value of a crop in any year is conditioned on the 

 favorableness of the season for that particular crop. 

 Furthermore, differences in the type or plan of manage- 

 ment followed on farms may require the use of forage 

 crops on some farms which would not be the most profit- 

 able when other systems of management are followed. For 

 these reasons, the selection of forage crops is first a ques- 

 tion of location and type of farming. 



Essentials of an ideal forage. 



In order that a forage crop may be the most valuable 

 for a given farm, it should possess as many desirable 

 individual characteristics as possible. Evvard 1 of the 

 Iowa Experiment Station has well summarized these 

 characteristics by naming the following as the essentials 



* Bull. 136. 

 153 



