CHAPTER 7 



MEADOW AND PASTURE GRASSES 



Meadow and pasture grasses constitute an important and desirable 

 part of the roughage for most classes of livestock. Livestock is indis- 

 pensable as a part of good agriculture. An old Flemish proverb says, 

 "No grass, no cattle; no cattle, no manure; no manure, no crops." The 

 history of agriculture of many countries shows that where the production 

 of grasses has been neglected, agriculture has declined. England neglected 

 the grass crops and her yield of wheat fell to less than fifteen bushels per 

 acre. She then turned her attention to grasses and the yield increased to 

 over thirty bushels per acre. Of her 28,000,000 acres of tilled land, over 

 one-half are now in permanent pastures. For the past forty-five years 

 permanent pastures of England have increased at about one per cent 

 annually. This should convince the American farmer that in order to 

 grow grain profitably crops must be rotated, and in this rotation grass 

 should find a prominent place. Some far-sighted farmers in North 

 America saw this many years ago, and in the corn belt those who have 

 grown grass are today husking sixty bushels of corn per acre, while those 

 who did not must be content with about thirty bushels. 



Importance and Value of Grasses. According to the last census the 

 hay crop of the United States was 61,000,000 tons, valued at $750,000,000. 

 This does not include the annual hay and forage crops and various kinds 

 of by-products, such as straw and corn stover. This amount of hay will 

 sustain the livestock of the United States about one-fourth of the year, 

 and must be supplemented by about 200,000,000 tons of other forms of 

 feed. Considerable of this comes from the pastures, for which we have 

 no definite statistics. The combined value of hay and pasture grasses 

 far exceeds that of any other crop excepting corn. 



Regions of Production. The perennial hay and pasture grasses 

 succeed best in the northeastern one-fourth of the United States and in 

 southeastern Canada. This grass region extends south to the Potomac 

 and Ohio rivers and to the southern border of Missouri and Kansas, 

 and is limited on the west by about the 96th meridian. The region is 

 characterized by a cool, moist climate and moderate to abundant rainfall. 



Principal Grasses of North America. There are several hundred 

 species of grasses, but of these there are less than one dozen that are of 

 economic importance in North America. Those of greatest importance 

 in the order mentioned are timothy, blue grass, redtop, Bermuda grass, 

 orchard grass, smooth brome grass and Johnson grass. There are a 

 number of others that are grown on a very limited scale, among which 



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