THE STATISTICS OF FORAGE CROPS 117 



the total United States acreage, and nearly as great a 

 percentage of total production of forage crops. 



The states with largest acreage are Iowa and New 

 York, each with over 5,000,000 acres; Nebraska, with 

 over 4,000,000 acres ; Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, South 

 Dakota, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, 

 each with over 3,000,000 acres. 



103. Hay and forage by classes, United States, 1909. 

 In the accompanying table is shown the acreage of the 

 different classes of forage crops grown in the United States 

 in 1909, as determined by the Thirteenth Census. The 

 acreage of corn, the principal American crop, and largely 

 used as forage both as roughage and as grain, is added for 

 comparison. Corn roughage is economically comparable 

 to hay made from small grains, but it should be borne in 

 mind that much small grain straw especially of oats 

 is also fed as roughage. In the census table several of the 

 categories include more than one crop as regards the plant 

 actually grown. Thus, " Grains Cut Green " include 

 oats, rye, wheat, barley and emmer ; " Coarse Forage " 

 covers corn and sorghums and similar plants cut for fod- 

 der or silage ; " Other tame or cultivated grasses " include 

 all hay grasses and legumes except timothy, red clover, 

 alfalfa and millet. 



Timothy and clover. Perhaps the most striking thing 

 about this table is the preponderating importance of 

 timothy and clover, alone or mixed. The two plants 

 constitute one-half of the total acreage of American forage 

 crops, even if the 17,000,000 acres of wild hay meadows 

 are included. Excluding these wild meadows timothy and 

 clover constitute over three-fourths of the acreage of hay 

 and forage crops. No figures are available for the relative 

 importance of timothy and clover each considered alone, 



