38 REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE 
pared with the last five, the average aggregate value of the hay crop 
was practically unchanged, it having fallen off only 2.31 per cent. 
The acreage in hay during the first five years was nearly ten per 
cent less than that of the cereals, whiie during the last five years 
it has averaged nearly twenty-five per cent more than the acreage 
in cereals.’ Also the aggregate value of the hay crop of the State 
has relatively greatly increased during the past twenty-five years, 
for while during the first five years it was 29.2 per cent less than 
the aggregate value of the cereals, it averaged during the last five 
years 31.9 per cent more than the aggregate value of the cereal crop. 
There has been during the twenty-five years a steady decline in 
the average acreage value not only of the cereal but also of the 
hay crop; but the decline in the value of hay has been far less 
than the average decline in that of the cereals; the latter have 
declined forty-four per cent, while the average acreage value of 
the hay crop has been but 29.44 per cent less during the last five 
years than it was during the first five of the quarter of a century 
under consideration. 
It is also to be observed that this decline is not due to 
diminished production but to the general decline from the high 
prices prevailing during the war. 
The above brief statistics are of the greatest significance as 
evidence that our farmers, with increasing intelligence, have come 
to appreciate the supreme importance of the grass crop, and there 
is no room to doubt that an increasing acreage in grass, with 
proper economy in its utilization upon the farm, will do more 
than anything else to render agriculture in our State more profit- 
able in the future and increase rapidly the fertility of our lands. 
Indeed there are thousands of practical illustrations all going to 
prove that profitable agriculture and productive lands are closely 
connected with flocks and herds and the large areas for the pro- 
duction of the grass and hay made necessary for their mainte- 
nance; while they in turn more than furnish the material needed 
to sustain the fertility of those lands from which they derive their 
support. 
The importance of this matter was early recognized by this 
Station, and for the purpose of systematic study and investigation 
of the grasses there were prepared a large number of plots upon 
which many different varieties have been grown from year to year, 
furnishing not only a valuable object lesson, which has been very 
