C FIELD CROP PRODUCTION 



seasons to complete the life cycle, no seeds being produced 

 during the first season, but only leaves, stems, and roots. 

 The seed is produced the second season. Perennials 

 are plants that live for more than two years. Some 

 perennials, such as alsike clover, live but a short time, 

 three or four years or so, while other perennials, such as 

 alfalfa and blue-grass, live for many years. Some annuals 

 utilize parts of two growing seasons, instead of making 

 all their growth in one season. An example is winter 

 wheat, which makes a partial growth during the fall and 

 completes its growth the next year. Such plants are 

 called winter annuals. 



10. Cultivated plants. — The flowering plants, includ- 

 ing both monocotyledons and dicotyledons, of which 

 there are a great number, and which are found in all 

 parts of the world where plants exist, may be divided into 

 the cultivated and uncultivated plants. However, some 

 plants that are cultivated in one part of the world may 

 grow wild in other lands. Of the great number of flowering 

 plants, species of over 200 families are cultivated by man. 

 These include those cultivated for their flowers, fruit, stem 

 and leaves, roots, tubers, grain and fiber. The cultivated 

 plants may be grouped into two general classes, horticul- 

 tural plants and field plants. Horticultural plants are 

 the fruits and vegetables. Field plants are those plants 

 grown in fields for their stems, leaves, roots, tubers, fiber, 

 or seeds. 



11. Field crops. — Field crops may be defined as those 

 plants grown in cultivated fields under a somewhat exten- 

 sive system of culture. Horticultural crops, on the 

 other hand, are those plants grown in comparatively small 

 areas under systems of intensive culture. This is not a 

 hard and fast distinction, however, since such crops as 



