CHAPTER VI 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



Our most important crop. The plants that grow in our 

 meadows and pastures constitute our most valuable agricul- 

 tural crop. The grasses and the legumes feed both our ani- 

 mals and our economic plants, as we shall learn later in our 

 study, and the meadows and the pastures contribute no small 

 part to the beauty of the landscape in the open country. 



Forage crops. All such food for animals as grass, hay, 

 pastures, etc., are known as forage crops. Fodder is the for- 

 age dried and cured. Green fodder is forage cut and used 

 before it ripens. Silage is chopped green forage stored in a 

 silo. Stover is cornstalks from which the ears are removed. 

 A soiling crop is one which is cut and fed green to animals. 

 There are about fifty forage crops, classified as follows: 



1. Perennials Timothy, red-top, blue-grass, orchard grass, 

 etc. 



2. Legumes Alfalfa, clovers, peas, beans, vetches, etc. 



3. Annual forage plants Oats, millet, Sudan grass, kaf- 

 fir corn, corn, etc. 



Meadows are fields used for growing forage plants to be 

 cut for hay. Pastures are fields used for grazing purposes. 

 Permanent pastures are devoted to perennial grasses. 



Hay. The hay crop of the United States is exceeded in 



49 



