The Significance of Forage-Cropping.
The term forage refers to any form of herbage used as food for live-stock. It consists of the leaves and stems of fresh or air-dried plants, together, in some cases, with the attached seeds. It includes mainly pasturage and soiling crops ; hay of the meadow-grasses, legumes, millet, and cereals ; field cured fodder corn, sorghum, and kafir corn ; the stems and leaves of some grain crops after the seeds are removed ; silage crops ; and root crops. The acreage in forage crops, according to the cen sus of 1900, exclusive of pasture lands, represents approximately 15 per cent of all improved land, and a little over 21 per cent of the area devoted to all crops, while the percentage of the total value of all crops is 16.6. Forage crops stand second in total acreage and in total value in the list of culti vated crops, corn being in the lead, while the value per acre is only seventeen cents less than the aver age for the cereals.
Pasturage was the earliest form of forage used and is still the chief food of live-stock in nearly all countries in the summer season. In earlier times pasture lands were all held and used in common and only small fenced areas were devoted to the growing of cultivated crops. As the population in creased, the proportion of cultivated lands became larger and the proportion devoted to grazing be came less. This change was necessary in order that the land might furnish support for the increasing inhabitants. In the earliest days of stock-raising, dried fodder was the only feed used in winter in cold climates. Wild grasses were doubtless the first plants dried for winter use. The ease with which these could be air-dried and preserved led to the selection of the seed of some of the best kinds, and to their being sown on cultivated lands. Little is known as to when the common grasses were first brought into cultivation, or which kinds are the oldest. It is said by one writer that up to 1815 not over three or four species were in cultivation throughout Europe. Clover was introduced into England from Flanders about 1650 and soon took an important place in the agriculture of that country. In the earlier history of this country all cereal grains were needed as food for man, and dried herbage was used exclusively as food for live stock. Little effort was made to produce milk or to fatten cattle, sheep or swine, except during the summer sea son. The live-stock was sustained
through the winter on what was often less than a healthy mainte nance ration. As the country de veloped and the proportion of the non-agricultural population grew larger, animal products increased in market value and the winter production of such products be came profitable. This led not only to the use of grain feeds, but to the production of a better grade of forage.
In many parts of this country there are large areas so rough and uneven as to be of little value for any other use than pastures. Even in the newer parts of our country there is a steady decrease in the area devoted to grazing and a steady increase in the area devoted to cereals. In the older European countries the area used exclu sively for pastures is much less than in the United States. Where land values are high it is a common practice to rotate pasture with cultivated lands, and in this way the pastures are improved and made to support more stock. Areas in use for growing grain are frequently sown to clover or rape in the spring and thus are fitted to supplement the regular pastures late in the season.
In many parts of Europe and in some of the more densely populated parts of this country, the summer feeding of green forage crops, or soiling, is replacing pasture feeding. By this plan of feed ing, more stock can be kept on a given area, the expense for fencing is greatly reduced and the manure can be more completely saved, but the labor involved is somewhat greater. In this country the high price of labor and the large amount of rough, low-priced land will long defer the general adoption of the soiling system. Irregularity in the supply of pasture, however, as a result of periodic droughts, makes advisable the partial substitution of green forage for pasture feeding. Such a plan of feeding is especially suited to high-priced lands, because more stock can be kept per acre than by exclusive pasturing. A large number of crops can be made available for this plan of feeding, and these can be grown so as to furnish valuable feed throughout the summer season. A number of soil ing crop successions have been published by the experiment stations, those by the New Jersey, Connecticut (Storrs) and the Massachusetts Stations probably being the best.