IN TE OD UCTION 5 



Wild pastures, whether wooded or prairie, are often 

 called ranges or range lands, especially in the West. 



2. Knowledge of forage crops compared with other 

 crops. A critical survey of the present state of agro- 

 nomic knowledge concerning forage crops as revealed both 

 in literature and in practice makes clear the fact that 

 there is not nearly as much accurate information about 

 these crops as there is concerning others such as cereals, 

 cotton, tobacco, etc. The reasons for this are not far to 

 seek. First, forage crops are only rarely grown as money 

 crops, and the farmer seldom knows with any degree of 

 accuracy what yields he obtains. His forage crops are, 

 therefore, not brought into yearly comparison with those 

 of his neighbors, so that no definite criterion becomes 

 established as to what are good and what poor yields. 

 Consequently, there is lacking the spur for better effort 

 brought about by the knowledge of the yields, and espe- 

 cially the money returns secured by neighboring farmers. 

 Second, there is a larger variety of plants grown for forage, 

 no one of which is cultivated over so wide an area as any 

 of the important cereal crops. There is, consequently, 

 a smaller amount of information about each of the many 

 forage crops than there is concerning any one of the few 

 cereal crops. 



The purely agronomic knowledge available, that is, 

 that relating to yield as affected by environmental, 

 cultural or other factors, namely, climate, soil, fertilizers, 

 culture, irrigation, variety, rate of seeding, rotation, 

 is partly the result of definite experiments, but largely 

 the experience of farmers. Experimental results, where 

 available, are more enlightening than those based on farm 

 returns, but a vastly greater amount of experimental 

 data is necessary for a better understanding of the com- 



