46 A TEXT-BOOK OF GRASSES 



Temporary meadows 



53. Under temporary meadows are included annual 

 crops sown or planted for hay, although fields of such 

 crops are not often popularly designated as meadows. 

 The plants most used for this purpose are: the grains, 

 foxtail millet, sorghum, corn and certain legumes, such as 

 cowpea and field pea. Several other plants are used 

 locally or sporadically. 



54. Grain hay. — Probably the most important group 

 of annual plants used for the production of annual 

 meadows is that of the grains. From the commercial 

 standpoint grain hay is of importance only in the western 

 states and particularly on the Pacific coast. In this por- 

 tion of the United States, except in the mountain meadows, 

 there is little native vegetation suitable for hay. Under 

 irrigation, alfalfa is the standard forage crop; but, over a 

 large area where the rainfall, though small, comes chiefly 

 during the winter, it is possible to grow crops of grain 

 without irrigation. The grains used for hay in the Pacific 

 coast states are mostly wheat and oats. In some locali- 

 ties barley, especially beardless barley, is used. Another 

 important constituent of the grain hay is wild oats {Avena 

 fatua, A.fatua glabrata, and A. harhata). This is widely 

 distributed, and an abundant volunteer crop may appear 

 in a field after a grain crop is harvested. In Washington 

 and Oregon chess or cheat is sometimes cultivated 

 for hay. 



55. The relative importance of grain hay may be 

 estimated from the data for California taken from the 

 report of the thirteenth census and given in the following 

 table. Important as is the alfalfa crop, its value is exceeded 

 by that of grain hay. 



