PART III FORAGE CROPS 



CHAPTER X 

 INTRODUCTION 



338. Definitions. A forage crop is any crop the leaves 

 or stems or both of which are used either green or dried 

 for feeding to stock. The green plants may be grazed, when 

 they constitute pasture, or they may be cut and fed green, 

 as a soiling crop; the practice of feeding in this manner is 

 called soiling. Hay is the cured or dried stems and leaves 

 of the finer grasses and other forage plants. Fodder is the 

 cured stems and leaves of corn, sorghum, or other coarse 

 plants, cut just before maturity and fed without removing 

 the grain. Stover is corn or other fodder from which 

 the grain has been removed. Straw is the stems and 

 leaves of grain crops from which the seed has been removed ; 

 it corresponds to the stover of the corn plant. Certain 

 forage plants, of wnich corn is the principal one, may be cut 

 green and stored in a tight enclosure built for the purpose 

 (a silo), or occasionally they may be stacked without curing; 

 in either case, the product is known as silage. 



A grass is any member of the great order of plants known 

 as the Gramineae, which includes not only the grasses as we 

 commonly know them, but the cereals and many weedy 

 plants as well. In the narrower sense in which it is com- 

 monly used, the term includes only the meadow and pasture 

 plants of this family, though it is sometimes used as a general 

 term for any plant grown in meadows or pastures, whether 



