IN TROD UCTION 9 



The actual value of the forage grown is, of course, far 

 greater than the hay and forage of the census returns. 

 To these figures need to be added the value of pasturage 

 and of the straw of various crops. It is probable that each 

 one of the 103,000,000 of cattle in India consumes about 

 as much feed as does each of the 86,000,000 in the United 

 States, but in India practically all of the forage is either 

 straw or wild grass. While the growing of crops purely 

 to feed animals is partly based on sentimental grounds, 

 its justification lies in the fact that it is sound economy. 



4. Forage crops in Europe and in America. In com- 

 paring the forage crops grown in America and in Europe, 

 it must be borne in mind that there are great differences 

 in the climate and some in the soil which in large measure 

 account for the relative importance of particular forage 

 plants in the two continents. So far as climate is con- 

 cerned, only California corresponds closely with the 

 countries of southern Europe ; only the northwest Pacific 

 coast region is at all comparable with England and northern 

 Germany; and the eastern portion of the Great Plains 

 is not very different from eastern Russia. On the other 

 hand, the northeastern portion of the United States and 

 adjacent Canada differs from any portion of Europe in 

 having hot humid summers, and the winters too are colder 

 than those of western Europe; the Southern States, 

 especially the cotton region, are still more different in 

 climate from any portion of Europe. 



Almost without exception the plants of southern Europe 

 succeed well in California, those of middle western 

 Europe on the north Pacific coast, and those of eastern 

 Russia on the Great Plains. 



In marked contract, but very few European forage 

 plants are well adapted to the Southern States, the most 



