164 FORAGE CROPS QUESTIONS 



FIELD AND LABORATORY EXERCISES 



Pasture Plants. Examine several pastures of the vicinity, and make a 

 list of the legumes, grasses, or other pasture crops grown therein. 



Improving Pastures. Consult the managers or owners and determine 

 what treatment, such as liming, manuring, harrowing, subsoiling, or re- seed- 

 ing have been done to make the pastures more permanent. What indications 

 do you find of any of these operations ? Do any of them show beneficial results? 



3. Pasturing Fields. Study the management of temporary pastures 

 where stock are moved from field to field during the summer season. Make a 

 chart of a farm using a rotation of temporary pastures. Indicate the crop that 

 is or should be grown in each field. Give approximate dates for pasturing 

 each field. 



4. Study the soiling system on some farm where it is systematically prac- 

 ticed. Make a list of soiling crops that are or should be grown for each part 

 of the season. Give the order in which these crops are to be harvested for 

 feeding. 



5. Describe the owner's management of the barnyard manure under the 

 soiling system, stating to what fields the manure is taken at different tunes. 



6. Make collections of forage grasses, including heads, stalks, and leaves 

 of all you can obtain. The smaller grasses may be pressed and mounted as 

 botany specimens, and the larger ones may be neatly tied in bundles and hung 

 in a convenient place for study. Label each plainly. 



QUESTIONS 



1. Define the terms forage crops, soiling crops, ensilage, stover and fodder. 



2. Give kinds of places where permanent pastures are most commonly found. 



3. Explain the soiling system with reference to dairy farms. What crops are 



grown for dairy soiling? 



4. Compare the advantages of certain grasses useful for hay. 



5. What pasture crops or pasture mixtures are grown in your section? 



6. Why is timothy so highly prized as a hay crop? 



7. Discuss the value of blue-grass for pastures. 



8. Give the adaptations for redtop; for orchard grass. 



9. Where is smooth brome grass most grown? Compare it with timothy. 



10. Where is Bermuda grass grown and what are the arguments in its favor? 



11. Discuss the millets as hay plants. 



References. -United States Farmers' Bulletins: 101, Millets; 164, Rape 

 as a Forage Crop; 246, Saccharine Sorghums for Forage; 271, Forage Crop 

 Practices in Western Oregon and Western Washington; 292, The Cost of 

 Filling Silos; 312, A Successful Southern Hay Farm; 361, Meadow Fescue: 

 Its Culture and Uses; 382, The Adulteration of Forage-plant Seed; 402, 

 Canada Blue-grass: Its Culture and Uses; 431, The Peanut; 458, The Best 

 Two Sweet Sorghums for Forage; 477, Sorghum-sirup Manufacture; 494, 

 Lawns and Lawn Soils; 502, Timothy Production on Irrigated Lands; 508, 

 Market Hay; 509, Forage Crops for the Cotton Region; 515, Vetches; 605, 

 Sudan Grass; 677, Growing Hay in the South for Market; 726, Natal Grass 

 A Southern Perennial Hay Crop; 



Cornell Bulletin 313, The Production of New and Improved Varieties of 

 Timothy. Vt. Bui. 94. Vermont Grasses and Clovers, Farm Grasses of the 

 Unites States, Spillman, Orange Judd Co., N. Y. Grasses and How to Grow 

 Them, Shaw, Webb Pub. Co., St. Paul. A Text Book of Grasses, Hitchcock, 

 Macmillan Co., N. Y. 



