No. 4.] GRASSES AND FORAGE CROPS. 185 



culture, we may see what a chance there is for improve- 

 ment. 



Since grass and hay can now be handled so largely by 

 machinery, it becomes one of our most profitable market 

 crops. The cost of production is less than for most of our 

 larger farm crops. It is safe to estimate that, where fields 

 are of fair size and the crop can be produced on a large 

 scale, a crop of hay can be grown, harvested and housed at 

 from $8 to $12 per acre. A fair yield of hay would not be 

 less than 2^ tons per acre. When hay commands a price 

 of from $14 to $18 per ton in near-by markets, it becomes 

 a far more profitable crop than any of the common grains. 

 Dairy farmers who live near good markets will generally 

 find it more profitable to sell their better grades of hay, to 

 feed cheaper coarse fodders, and to supplement these by the 

 liberal use of grain feeds. 



Grasses. 



The grasses, taken collectively, form one of the largest 

 and most widely distributed orders of plants. More than 

 three thousand species have been described. They are 

 found in all parts of the world, from the tropics to as far 

 north as vegetation will thrive. The plants of this family 

 are probably of more value to man than those of any other 

 botanical family. They furnish practically all of the cereal 

 foods used by man and animals, as well as most of the 

 coarse fodder fed upon the farm. Ordinarily we think 

 of the grasses as including only such plants as are used for 

 hav; but all of our common grains (except buckwheat), 

 such as corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, rice and sorghum, 

 belong to the same general class of plants. The grasses 

 represent a great diversity in form and manner of growth. 

 Some species, like the small spear grass common in lawns, 

 grow only a few inches high ; others, like sorghum and 

 corn, are from ten to fifteen feet high ; and still others, like 

 the bamboo of the tropics, reach a height of fifty to seventy 

 feet. 



While several of the cereals, such as wheat and barley, 

 have been cultivated from the earliest times, our common 

 meadow and pasture grasses have been brought into culti- 



