The Springdale news., 1915-10-01
[. CLASSES OF FORAGE CROPS.

l. GLASSES OF FORAGE CROPS.
 Any vegetable matter fresh or cured eaten by live stock such as hay, grain. fodder. or silage is included in the class of forage and those crops grown primarily for that purpose are known as forage crops. Whenever cereal crop is grown for hay, pasture, or sit- age it too is called forage crop. Every farm maintains few head of live stock for which it Is necessary to provide feed The most successful men are growing the feed at home to avoid the necessity of buying.
 One-half of the total acreage of American forage plants consists of ti- mothy and clovers, but the greatest amount of roughage is produced from corn. Over five 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 elovers, and many tame grasses such as Bermuda, orchard grass, red top, and crab grass are grown to a considerable extent for hay and pas ture In addition to all of the above there are more than seventeen million acres left to wild grasses. Forage in the United States exceeds in value that of all other crops.
 Legumes, while not grown so ex- tensiyely as grasses, are more valua- ble, pound for pound, because they al- most uniformly have 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 a high germinating 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 rot discovered until 1866, and it was not until 1887 that Hellriegel demon.
 strated that leguminous plants could | utilize atmospheric nitrogen by aid of | these bacteria in the root nodules II | was known even before Christ that | the growing of certain legumes help cd 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 tc
 inoculate one crop with the organ
 isms from another According to Pi
 per the only proven case of this Is 1 that of alfalfa and sweet clover, either | of which can be inoculeted with the | Oroanicpnc from tho otbar
 The root nodules on various le
 gumes vary widely in size, shape and l abundance. On most clovers they
 are small, globular and oftentimes
 club shaped. On alfalfa they arc
 usually some longer and oftentimes
 more branched On vetches they are
 very much branched and often fan | shaped. On cowpeas, peanuts, anu
 most beans they are irregnlarly glob
 ular and solid. The soy sean nodules
 are also globular, but have raised | ridges on the surface It is said tha, 1 the velvet bean sometimes has no
 dules as large as a baseball. Some ot
 the legun1inous crops of Arkansas, al l itiid ioi CAoilpit, dic dcptHueul upon
 the presence of the nodule organisms for their successful growth. While
 other legumes will do we'll on fertile
 soils without the presence of the or
 ganisms, experiments show the pres l 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,
 teria in the nodules on the roots real
 ly take their nitrogen from the air
 which occupies the spaces between the