CHAPTER VI 

 THE STATISTICS OF FORAGE CROPS 



STATISTICS regarding forage crops are instructive to the 

 agronomist in showing the relative importance and geograph- 

 ical distribution of each crop reported upon. The data 

 from successive censuses also disclose the progress or re- 

 gression which a crop may have made. Unfortunately 

 only the principal crops are included in the returns. The 

 relative importance of the various forage in different coun- 

 tries varies so greatly that the statistical returns are not 

 directly comparable, as a rule. 



101. Classification of crops in statistical returns. - 

 In the Thirteenth United States Census, 1909, the cereal, 

 seed and forage crops are thus classified : cereals in- 

 clude corn, oats, wheat, barley, buckwheat, rye, rice, 

 emmer and spelt, kafir and milo. " Other grains and 

 seeds " include beans, peas, peanuts, flaxseed, grass seeds, 

 flower seeds and vegetable seeds. " Hay and forage " 

 include all crops cut for hay and fodder, excluding the 

 cereals, except such as are cut for hay, and also ex- 

 cluding improved pastures. 



Iri considering this classification of crops, it needs to 

 be pointed out that under " cereals " is included a vast 

 amount of produce other than grain utilized as forage. 

 Thus, the herbage of the corn crop, whether preserved as 

 stover, silage or pulled fodder, is used purely as forage, 

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