98 DESCRIPTION OF FEEDING STUFFS 
other reasons, it has largely been superseded during late years among 
dairy farmers in eastern and central United States by feeding 
summer silage. We shall see that the silage can. be preserved per- 
fectly for feeding during the summer months, and it has the advan- 
tage over soiling crops in at least three ways: Convenience of feed- 
ing, uniformity, and palatability (p. 153). The practice of feeding 
summer silage, either of Indian corn, clover, or alfalfa, is, therefore, 
being adopted by more and more stockmen, and the soiling system 
is becoming less important with every year. By either system a 
maximum and uniform production may be secured during the try- 
ing weather conditions of late summer or early fall, and either 
system is a great step in advance of the practice still followed by 
many farmers of leaving stock to subsist on largely burnt-up 
pastures® (Fig. 13). 
QUESTIONS 
1. What is the soiling system? Give its main advantages and its disad- 
vantages. 
2. What is (a) partial soiling? (6) summer silage? 
3. Name some of the more important soiling crops and their characteristics. 
JiI. HAY CROPS 
~ Hay Crops.—In northern countries, where snow covers the 
ground during a part of the year, it is necessary to provide winter 
feed for the stock from forage crops harvested during the summer 
and fall. The main hay crops are grasses and clover, which are cut 
at the appropriate time (p. 58) and air-dried (cured), after which 
they are stored in hay barns or shed, to be fed as required during the’ . 
winter and spring, until next year’s forage crops become available. 
Hay raising forms an important agricultural industry in our 
country, the hay crop ranking next to Indian corn in value. Over 
72,000,000 acres were sown to hay and forage crops in 1909, the 
most important kinds being timothy and clover mixed, “ wild, salt, 
and prairie hay,” and timothy alone. Each of these makes up about 
25 per cent of the total acreage of hay and forage crops. Hay crops 
of relatively minor importance, when the whole country is con- 
sidered, but important in their respective regions, are alfalfa (7 
per cent of the total acreage), grains cut green, coarse forage, clover 
alone, millet, and Hungarian grasses, “other. tame or cultivated 
grasses,” and root forage making up the balance of the acreage. 
More‘than one-half of the entire acreage in hay and forage crops 
® Wisconsin Bulletin 235. 
