458 PRACTICAL BOTANY 



Oatmeal cooked in various ways, barley bread, and rye bread 

 are therefore more used than wheat by the poorer classes 

 throughout that region. Oats and barley are both much used 

 as feed for horses, and barley is largely employed by brewers 

 in the manufacture of malt. 



Rice is the great cereal crop of Asia, and a good deal is 

 grown in South Carolina and the Gulf States. The territory 

 in which rice is grown has been much extended in the United 

 States within the past decade. The crop is generally cul- 

 tivated on land that is overflowed during part of the year 

 (Fig. 274). 



421. Grasses cultivated for hay, forage, or pasture. In 

 addition to the high value already stated for the hay crop, 

 there are many grasses which are used directly as feed, with- 

 out being cut and dried as hay. It would be difficult to esti- 

 mate the annual value of the forage grasses and the pasturage 

 of the United States, but it must run into hundreds of millions 

 of dollars. Only three or four of the most important grasses 

 that are cultivated or somewhat protected in their growth can 

 here be mentioned. 



Timothy is the leading grass for hay, especially in the more 

 northerly states. Redtop ranks next after timothy as a source 

 of hay, though in its quality it is somewhat inferior to the 

 former. Kentucky blue grass is the most valuable pasture 

 grass in America. There are many grasses of great value in 

 semi-arid regions, as the buffalo grass. Formerly some of 

 these dried, as they stood, into a kind of natural hay on which 

 the vast herds of buffalo of the Great Plains fed throughout 

 the winter. 1 Red clover and alfalfa are also very valuable 

 hay-producing plants. They do not belong to the Grass family, 

 however, but to the Pea and Bean family (Leguminosse). 



422. Cotton. The most valuable fiber plant of the world is 

 the cotton plant, which is a member of the same family as the 

 mallows and the hollyhocks. It is grown extensively in India, 



1 On the grasses see G. F. Warren, Elements of Agriculture, chap. vii. 

 The Macmillan Company, New York. 



