48 FORAGE CROPS IN NEBRASKA. 



case of the cowpea, growers should endeavor to use home-grown seed. 

 which always aids in such adaptation. For pasture the cowpea is well 

 adapted to cattle, sheep, and. especially when the pods are ripening, 

 to hogs. Poultry readily eat the seeds. 



The pasture tests of 1900 (see Bulletin No. 69 of the Nebraska 

 Experimental Station) showed that one-fifth acre furnished twenty days* 

 pasture — July 21 to August 13. There was a highly favorable effect 

 upon the milk flow and the butter fat produced, in which respect "the 

 forage far surpassed all of the other crops except alfalfa, and was even 

 slightly superior to that very valuable forage plant." In this test the 

 variety used was the Whip-poor-will. 



Two plots of the above variety were sown in 1S9T to test the yield 

 of fodder. They were harvested on September 23 and gave at the 

 rate of 1.37 tons and 1.02 tons to the acre. A plot grown in 1896 gave 

 a yield of green fodder amounting to 22.S50 pounds per acre, or some- 

 thing over two tons of hay. 



Small Grains. 



For late fall and early spring pasture nothing excels the winter 

 grains in palatability. nutritive qualities, and in quantity of forage. 

 It is customary to utilize winter wheat incidentally for pasture at such 

 seasons of the year in localities where this crop is grown for grain. 

 Eye is frequently used for pasture, and this plant is to be highly 

 recommended wherever it can be grown as a winter crop. The grain- 

 can also be used to advantage as a spring crop, but in this case the 

 pasturage comes later in the season when the want is less keenly felt. 

 Rye sown in the autumn produces pasture at a season when permanent 

 pastures are dormant or giving only meager returns. 



In the pasturing tests, a one-fifth-acre plot gave about twenty-seven 

 days' pasturage. ** It furnished the earliest pasturage of any of the 

 annual forage crops and could have been pastured in the fall." 



The small grains make an excellent quality of hay and in Nebraska 

 are not infrequently used for this purpose. In California the great 

 bulk of the hay upon the city markets is grain hay made from wheat 

 and oat-. 



Oats and rye are also used in Nebraska as soiling crops during 

 spring and early summer. Although the amount used by each farmer 

 in this way may be small, yet the aggregate must be considerable. 



Corn. 



This is by far the most valuable plant grown in Nebraska, as it is 

 also of the United States. It is grown chiefly for the grain, but in this 

 bulletin we are concerned with its forage value. Where corn is grown 

 for the grain there are two common methods of utilizing the stalks. 

 The corn may be allowed to mature in the field and the ears husked 



