MILLETS AND OTHER ANNUAL GRASSES 299 



cereal hays are mostly utilized for feeding to cows, but with 

 care may be satisfactorily fed to horses. Rye is somewhat 

 objectionable on account of awns on the heads, and the 

 same thing applies to awned varieties of wheat and barley. 



The straw of all of these cereals is also utilized as feed, 

 that of oats being considered far more valuable than any 

 of the other small grains. 



The same use of small grains for hay is made in Australia 

 and New Zealand. In Australia over half of the total hay 

 crop is made from wheat and nearly half of it from oats. In 

 New Zealand over half of the hay crop is produced by oats. 



Where cereals are thus cut for hay, it is the usual 

 practice to cut them in the late milk or early dough stage. 

 In the western United States, where wheat is largely har- 

 vested by headers or by harvesters, it is a very common 

 practice to open up the field ; that is, cut one or more 

 swaths clear around the field and one or more across the 

 field so as to make a passage for the grain harvesting 

 machinery. The grain cut in opening up the field is 

 commonly used for hay. 



OTHER ANNUAL GRASSES 



365. Chess or cheat (Bromus secalinus). Cheat is 

 an annual grass native to the Old World and frequently 

 occurring as a weed in wheat fields. The adaptations 

 of the two plants are very similar and formerly the idea 

 was held that cheat is a degenerate or changed form of 

 wheat, whence its name. 



Cheat is sometimes grown as an annual crop for hay, 

 planting it in the fall like winter wheat. Formerly it 

 was quite largely grown in western Oregon. In recent 

 years it has been cultivated in northern Georgia under 

 the name of Arctic-grass. 



