140 AGRICULTURE 



In a dry season hay cures easily. If it continues wet and plants 

 are full of sap, care is needed to prevent mildew and rot. If 

 cutting is followed by cold, wet weather, the crop will be injured or 

 lost in spite of care. 



EXERCISE 



1. Collect specimens of true grasses and legumes. Compare their 

 different parts, roots, stems, leaves, and blossoms, and make draw- 

 ings of them. How is the pollen of legumes carried ? How is that of 

 true grasses conveyed ? 



2. What are the best pasture and hay crops of your section? 



3. You will enjoy raising some peanuts and observing the plants' 

 habits of growth. The small Spanish peanuts are productive and are 

 easy to raise. 



CORN, WHEAT, AND OTHER CEREALS 



Cereals. Cereals are plants of the grass family which are 

 cultivated for their seed or grains. Among the most widely culti- 

 vated ones are corn, wheat, oats, rye, barley, and rice. During 

 the early stages of growth there is much nourishment in the stems 

 and leaves of cereals, and they are sometimes cut then for green 

 feed or hay. Usually, however, they are allowed to ripen their 

 seeds, the grain crop so valuable for food. Much of the plant's 

 nourishing substance is stored in the grain, but the leaves ' and 

 stalk are still useful for forage. 



Corn. Corn, or maize, our great American cereal, is probably 

 a native of tropical America. Long before Columbus crossed the 

 ocean, it was cultivated as a bread grain by Indian tribes in the 

 North and South, the East and West; and still from Maine to 

 Florida, from Massachusetts to California, the summer sun shines 

 on broad, waving fields of corn. 



The average annual crop of the United States is over two and a 



