THE GRASS CROP If 
grain hay consists mostly of oats cut and fed in the 
sheaf, and of cow-peas. The thick patch of grain hay 
shown in southern Louisiana consists entirely of cow- 
peas grown on sugar plantations, both for hay and for 
their fertilizing effect on the soil. At the North, Cana- 
dian field peas are sometimes sown with oats for hay, 
but the area is quite limited. They hardly extend as 
far south as central Pennsylvania and central Ohio. 
The hay crop next in importance is alfalfa, of 
which 2,094,000 acres is reported in the Census of 
1900. ‘This is confined almost entirely to the West, 
and largely to irrigated land in that section. Alfalfa, 
as an important crop, stops at the western limit of 
‘other tame grasses,’’ as shown in Fig. 17. It is now 
rapidly gaining ground in the East and South. The 
average yield per acre is 2.5 tons—nearly double that 
of any of the preceding crops. 
Last in the list of tame hay crops are ‘‘ Millet and 
Hungarian grasses.’’ Of these, 1,744,000 acres are 
shown in the census returns, with an average yield of 
1.6 tons per acre. ‘Their distribution is shown in Fig. 
20, and the millet crop is discussed in detail in Chapter 
VII. 
The acreage of forage crops is placed at 3,107,000. 
The average yield of dry forage is 2.6 tons per acre. 
Kansas leads in the production of forage. Sorghum 
and Kafir-corn are eminently adapted to the western 
margin of the humid region; sorghum does equally 
well in the whole of the cotton-producing section, 
where it is highly important as a fodder crop. It is 
also much used in the South as a green feed for sum- 
mer and as pasture for all kinds of stock. 
