PART II 



DESCRIPTION OF FEEDING STUFFS 

 A. COARSE FEEDS 



CHAPTER XII 

 GREEN FORAGE AND HAY CROPS 



FARM animals depend on green feed for their sustenance for a 

 considerable part of 'the year, the period varying according to cli- 

 matic conditions, from about four months during the summer time 

 in the North to nearly the entire year in the regions more favored in 

 this respect, in the South and Southwest. During this time the 

 stock, as a general rule, receive no feed but what they find growing 

 in the pasture, on the plains or mountain ranges. It is only in 

 sections where somewhat intensive systems of farming have been 

 introduced that other feed is provided for the stock during this 

 period, as in the case of dairy cows in late summer and fall. Both 

 because of the length of time during the year when farm animals 

 depend wholly or mainly on pasture grass for their feed, and be- 

 cause grazing is universal throughout the country at some time of 

 the year, pasture grasses form a most important source of feed for 

 our livestock. 



I. PASTURES 



Pastures. We distinguish between natural and artificial 

 .pastures. The former are self-sown and consist largely of native 

 grasses. These are the permanent pastures generally found in hilly 

 or wooded regions in the northern States and in the western United 

 States, where wild native grasses cover the wide plains and ranges. 



With Spillman we may consider that the United States consists 

 of six different agricultural sections, each one of which is char- 

 acterized by the growth of special plants of agricultural value. 

 These sections, with some of the main grasses and clovers grown in 

 pastures and meadows in the different sections, are given below, 1 



1. The Timothy Region (northeastern part of the United States, as 

 far south as a line from Virginia to Kansas, and east of a line from Kansas 

 to eastern North Dakota) : Timothy mixed with red clover or pure seeding, 

 red top, Kentucky blue grass, orchard grass, fescue grass. 



2. The Cotton Belt : Cowpeas, Johnson grass, soybeans, Bermuda grass, 

 crab grass, Japan and crimson clover. 



1 Cyclopedia American Agriculture, vol. ii, p. 42. 

 90 



