The Dermott news., 1915-09-30
CLASSES OF FORAGE CROPS.

l. CLASSES OF FORAGE CROPS.
Any vegetable matter fresh or cured
eaten by live stock such Il hay. grain
fodder or Stage is included III the
class of forage and those crops grown
primarily for That purpose are known
a. forage crops Whenever cereal
crop i, grown for hay pasture. or sit
Every farm maintains faw head o.
live stock Tor which II i, ueceesar,
10 provide teed The most successful
men are growing the feed at home IT,
avoid the necessity Of h0yjnS
Onehalf OF the total acreage OF
american forage plants consist, or Il
notify and cloyers but the creates
amount OF rouchase is produced from
corn Over i've milton acres OF alfal-
IA are now beng grown III the tntted
States Mn"h wheat. oats rye. mlllet,
sorghum and sudan grass are grown
liil l'NN III Il - wv pas NpN pteiN -
tho clorers. and many tame grasses
such a Bermuda orchard grass. rcd
top. and crab grass are grown 10 a
considerable extent Tor hay aud pas.
ture In addition to all Il the above
there are more tHan seventeen million
acres left To Mid cra~see Forage jo
the nited States rNeeeis in value
that OF al other crops
legumc4. While not grown SO eV.
teusiyely Is grasses, are more Nalul.
bile pound for pound. because Hey Al
most uniformly have higher prote1
or 1eSh forming content than othr-
crops or more than one hundred IL.
gumeS comparatively few are OF agri.
cultural yalr" IN Arkansas
The grasses are either annual Ike
sorghum. millet or Sudan grass, or
perennial like orchard grass. Bcrmu.
da or Johnson grass The roots of
grasses ara very small ard usually
live for only one season y compared
with other crops grass seeds do not
hay" a nigh terminating power
The class OF forage crops know as
leSumes includes peas beans. alfalfa.
cloyerS yetches. and many others
This forms a most importaut agriCul-
tura class OF plants in that most ~
its members have the ability 10 use
free nitrogen taken from the atmos
nhere b. the aid OF certain bacteria
that forms nodues on the roots Very
r." other plants and nont OF agriCui-
'ural value In Arkansas have this
ability These facts have been known
only for comparatively short time
That thu podules on the roots o;
these plants contained bacteria was
not discovered uufil 1866. and IL VA,
not until ISIS, that Hellrtrcel demon.
Strated that lesuminous plants couli
utilize atmospheric nitrogen b. aid ~
these bacteria In the root noduleS y
MAS known even before Chris that
the growing OF certain legumes help
I'd succeeding crops but the reason
MAS not known until the recent dis.
cor cries
The organism causing the uodule,
on leguminous plants occurs In many
different forms because I'm oul, few
instances has II seemed possible to
inoeulate one crop with he orcan.
i>ms from another According 10 T.,
per the only proven case OF thi. &
hat OF alfalfa and sweet clover either
of which can be inoculatcd With TIA
organisms from the other
The root nodules on various lie.
cumes vary widely i'm siza shape ami
abundance On most cloNers they
are small Clobular aud oftentimos
club shaped On alfalfa they are
usually some longer and oftentimcs
more hranched On vctches they ara
very much branched and often fan
shaped On cowpeas. peanuts. and
most beans they are irresllarly glol-
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 II baseball Some OF
The leguminous crops of Arkansas. al.
talta for example, are dependent upon
the presence OF the nodule organisms
Tor their successful growth While
other legumes will do we'll on fertile
soils without the presence OF the or
ssnisms. experiments show the pres.
ence OF the organism is beneficial 70
the crop.
Many people have the mistaken idea
that 'leguminOus plants gather nitro.
cen through their leaves The bac.
.,aria in the nodules on the roots real.
pes take their nitrogen from the air
lieh occupies the spaces between the
particles