272 FIELD CROPS 



a true grass or not. A legume is a plant belonging to the 

 other great group of forage plants, the Leguminoseae, which 

 includes the clovers, alfalfa, cowpea, soy bean, and many 

 others. 



339. Importance of Forage Crops. The total area of the 

 farms in the United States, according to the Census of 1910, 

 was 878,798,325 acres, while the area of improved lands was 

 478,451,750 acres. Of this area of improved lands, 311, 

 293,382 acres were in harvested crops, and 167,158,368 

 in woodlands, pastures, and orchards. The improved 

 woodlands are practically all pastured, while the acreage in 

 orchards is comparatively small; so it is safe to assume that 

 155,000,000 acres are used for pasture. Of the area in 

 harvested crops, 72,280,776 acres, or about 23 per cent, were 

 devoted to hay and other forage production. In addition 

 to all of this, a very large part of the area not listed in farms, 

 about 80 per cent of the total area of the United States, is 

 used as pasture, including the range lands of the western 

 prairies, the mountain slopes and valleys, and other lands 

 not devoted to farming or too rough for improvement. 

 The total acreage in harvested forage crops and improved 

 pastures was something like 227,000,000 acres, as compared 

 with 98,383,000 acres in corn and 93,000,000 acres in other 

 grain crops 1 . 



340. The Classes of Forage Crops. Practically all of our 

 forage plants belong to one or the other of the two great 

 families, the grasses and the legumes. The more important 

 forage grasses are perennial, and are used either for pasture 

 or meadow. These include timothy, redtop, Kentucky 

 blue grass, orchard grass, Johnson grass, and many others. 

 The annual forage grasses are used either as hay or as soil- 



1. It may be of Interest to the student to compare the above percentages with corre- 

 sponding figures for older settled countries, as England and Germany. See Agricultural 

 'ay H. C. Taylor, and the Cyclopedia pf American Agriculture for data., 



