CHAPTER XII 



FORAGE CROPS GRASSES 



Isn't it wonderful when you think, 

 How the creeping grasses grow, 

 High on the mountain's rocky brink, 



In the valley down below? 

 A common thing is a grass-blade small, 



Crushed by the feet that pass, 

 But all the dwarfs and giants tall, 

 Working till doomsday shadows fall, 



Can't make a blade of grass. 



JULIAN S. CUTLER. 



THERE are two great families of plants from which are pro- 

 duced nearly all of the hay, pasture and soiling forage for live- 

 stock grasses and legumes. Grasses have certain definite 

 characteristics by which they are distinguished from other families 

 of plants. The leaves have parallel veins and are usually very 

 long, slender and pointed the bases sheathing the stem. The 

 stem has fiber bundles scattered through it, except in those 

 which have hollow stems. The scattered bundles are shown in 

 the stem of a corn stalk. The stems are marked with closed and 

 enlarged joints or nodes. The flowers are inconspicuous and when 

 the pollen is carried it is usually by the wind. To this family 

 belong the numerous grasses used for pasture and hay, as well as 

 a number of the cereal plants, corn, wheat, rye, oats and barley. 



Definitions. When the leaves and stems of plants are used for 

 stock feed, such plants are called forage crops. The plants may 

 be eaten by stock while growing, as in a pasture; or the plants may 

 be cut green and fed before drying. They are then called soiling 

 crops; and such a practice of feeding is called soiling. When a 

 forage crop is cut and dried before feeding it is then called hay or 

 fodder. Forage from the finer grasses and plants is called hay 

 and that from the coarser leaves and stems is called fodder. Ex- 

 amples of fodder plants are corn, kafir and sorghum. When corn 

 has had the ears removed the remaining feed is called stover. 

 When corn or other forage plants are cut up and preserved in a 

 silo the feed is known as silage or ensilage. Straw is the resulting 

 stems, leaves and chaff after seed has been thrashed from the 

 mature crop. Examples are legume straw of several kinds, and 

 straw from buckwheat, small grains, millet and others. 



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