214 



.VAT 



XIII. CULTURE OF PLANTS USED FOR FORAGE 

 OR HERBAGE. 



PLANTS cultivated for jbrage, says Low, are those which 

 are known and used either In a green or dried state, as the food 

 of animals. Plants cultivated for herbage are consumed upon 

 the ground where they are produced. Certain kinds of plants 

 are better suited for forage than herbage; but many are adapted 

 to either purpose, and therefore no distinct line can be drawn 

 between the two classes consequently they are not treated 

 separately in the following pages. The limits of our work will 

 not allow us to go into a minute detail or description of the 

 great variety of grasses known and treated of by botanists.* 

 We shall confine ourselves mostly to such as are now culti- 

 vated among us or are adapted to our climate, and may be 

 introduced profitably into the system of American husbandry. 



I. CLOVER. 



The cultivation of clover and other herbage plants used ex- 

 clusively as food for live stock, is comparatively a modern im- 

 provement. Clover at this period, enters largely into the suc- 

 cession of crops on all soils and in every productive course 

 of management. The characteristic points of culture of this 

 class of plants, are broadcast sowing, mowing, soiling and hay- 

 making; and that when cut for the two last purposes, two or 

 more crops may be had in a season from the same roots. Few 

 things have contributed more largely to the modern improve- 

 ment of husbandry, than the introduction of clover, in connec- 

 tion with the rotation of crops. While it tends to meliorate 

 and fertilize the soil, it at the same time affords an abundance 

 of wholesome food for every description of farm stock. Few 

 if any plants surpass it in the quantity of cattle food which it 



* Sir JOHN SINCLAIR says, that there are two hundred and fifteen different 

 kinds of grasses, properly so called, which are known or cultivated in Great 

 Britain. The duke of BEDFORD caused a series of experiments to be instituted, 

 at a vast expense of money, to try the comparative merits and value of these 

 grasses to the number of ninety-seven. According to these experiments, tall 

 fescue grass, festuca elatior, stands highest as to the quantity of nutritive mat- 

 ter afforded by the whole crop, when cut at the time of flowering; and meadow 

 cat's-tail grass, phieum pratense, called in New England herd's grass, and in 

 the middle and southern states timothy grass, affords most food when cut at 

 the time the seed is ripe. Complete farmer, page 15. 



