18 FORAGE CROPS IN NEBRASKA. 



The following table gives the acreage and value of these crops for 



1899: 



Table A t I. — Acreage and value of crops for 1899. 



Crop. 



Value. 



Corn 



Wheat | 2, 538, 949 



Oats 1,924,827 



Hay and forage 2, 823, 662 



Potatoes ' 79. 901 



335, 187 851, 251, 213 

 11, 877, 347 

 11, 333, 393 

 11,230,901 



1, 734, 666 



Vegetables '. 34,044 1,383,470 



I | 



Of lesser importance are rye, barley, fruit, sugar beets, and broom 

 corn. 



CLASSIFICATION OF FORAGE PLANTS. 



Forage plants may be classified, according to duration, into peren- 

 nials and annuals; according to kind, into grasses, legumes, and mis- 

 cellaneous; according to use, into pasture, meadow, soiling, and silage 

 plants. 



DURATION. 



Perennials. — This group includes those plants which live more than 

 one year. The forage plants under consideration are all herbs, of 

 which most of the portion above ground dies during winter, but 

 the roots live and throw up new shoots the following spring. For 

 most purposes it is manifestly an advantage that a crop should yield 

 returns year after year without the expense of reseeding. On the 

 other hand, the actual yield of forage the first season is almost always 

 less with a perennial than with an annual, and furthermore, a per- 

 ennial may not lend itself to the most desirable rotation. The impor- 

 tant perennial forage crops of Nebraska are alfalfa, clover, brome- 

 grass. timothy, and bluegrass. Some of these, such as timothy and 

 clover, are known as short-lived perennials; that is. as a crop they 

 tend to disappear in two or three years to such an extent that they 

 need reseeding. This is also true of such grasses as Italian rye-grass. 



Annuals. — These are plants which reach their maturity during the 

 season that they are planted and then die. Common examples of this 

 group are the grains, corn, sorghum, millet, cowpea. soy bean, and 

 rape. Where land is valuable and it is necessary to grow a maximum 

 crop upon a given area, annuals are more profitable as forage crops 

 than perennials; or when it is desired to produce a crop at a given 

 season of the year, such as earty or late pasture of rye. a succession of 

 succulent forage for dairy cattle, or a catch crop to utilize the land, 

 annuals are invariably used. 



