Pocahontas star herald., 1915-10-01
l. CLASSES OF FORAGE CROPS.

iouuot OF tltRe ~ lnCiuutu IN Nne
class Of forage and those crops grown
primarily for that purpose are known
as forage crops. Whenever a cereal
crop is grown for hay. pasture. or sill
age II too f. called a forage crop
Every farm maintains a few head o,
live stock for which II Is necessary
to provide feed. The most successful
men are growing the feed at home To
avoid the necessity OF buying.
onehalf of the total acreage OF
American forage plants consists OF u,
notify and clovers, but the greatest
amount OF roughage is produced from,
corn. over fve million acres OF alfal.
IA are now being grown In the United
States. Much wheat oats. rye. millet,
sorghum and Sudan grass are grown
for rough forage. Cow peas. soy beans.
the cloyers. and many tame grasses
such as Bermuda, orchard grass, red
top, and crab grass are grown 20 a
considerable extent for hay and pas
ture In addition TO all OF the above
there are more than seventeen million
acres left 10 wild grasses. Forage In
the United States exceeds in value
that OF all other crops.
Legumes, while not grown so ex.
tensively as grasses, are more yalua-
BILE, pound for pound, because they al.
most uniformly have a higher protein
or flesh forming content than other
crops. OF more than one hundred le-
gumes comparatively few are OF agri.
cultural value in Arkansas.
The grasses are either annual like
sorghum, millet, or Sudan grass, or
perennial like orchard grass, Bermu.
da, or Johnson grass. The roots OF
grasses are very small and usually
live for only one season. As compared
with other crops grass seeds do not
have high terminating power.
The class OF forage crops known as
legumes includes peas, beans, alfalfa,
clovers, yetches, and many others.
This forms a most important agricul.
tural class Of plants In that most Of
It's members have the ability to use
free nitrogen taken from the atmos.
phere by the aid OF certain bacteria
that forms nodules on the roots. Very
few other plants and none of agricul-
tural value in Arkansas have this
ability. These facts have been known
only for a comparatively short time
That the nodules on the roots Of
these plants contained bacteria was
not discovered until 1866. and II was
not until 1887 that Hellriegel demon.
strated that leguminous plants could
utilize atmospheric nitrogen by aid Of
these bacteria in the root nodules. u
was known even before Christ that
the growing Of certain legumes help
ed succeeding crops, but the reason
was not known until the recent dis.
coveries
The organism causing the nodules
on leguminous plants occurs in many
different forms because in only few
instances has It seemed possible to
inoculate one crop with the organ
isms from another. According to Pr
per the only proven case OF this Is
that Of alfalfa and sweet clover, either
Of which can be inoculated with the
organisms from the other.
The root nodules on various le-
gumes vary widely in size, shape and
abundance. On most ciovers they
are small. globular and oftentimes
club shaped. On alfalfa they are
usually some longer and oftentimes
more branched On vetches they are
very much branched and often fan,
shaped. On cowpeas, peanuts, and
most beans they are irregilarly glob-
ular and solid. The soy bean nodules
are also globular, but have raised
ridges on the surface. II is said that
the velvet bean sometimes has no.
dulles as large as baseball. Some Of
the leguminous crops Of Arkansas, al
falfa for example, are dependent upon
the presence Of the nodule organisms
for their successful growth. While
other legumes will do well on fertile
soils without the presence of the or
ganisms, experiments show the pres
ence of the organism is beneficial to
the crop.
Many people have the mistaken idea
that leguminous plants gather nitro
gen through their leaves. The bac-
terra in the nodules on the roots real
" take their nitrogen from the air
which occupies the spaces between the
soil particles.