Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1924-07-03
Principal Crops
Used for Forage
Domestic Animals Consume
Three-Fourths Of Product
of Improved Land.
prepared by the United States Department
Of Aprfc1I1tura


of land occupied by crops harvested in
the census year 1919 were used to
produce forage, that is, concentrates
and roughage for live stock, says the
Department of Agriculture in a review
of forage resources based on census
data and other material. The area
used to produce forage in 1919 was
approximately 257,OO0,OO0 acres. This
compares with 100000 acres, or
about two-tenths of the total crop
area, used for producing food for hui
man consumption, and 100000
acres, or about one-tenth Of the crop
area, used for other purposes, prin-
cipally to grow cotton, tobacco and
fax.
AS used by the department, the term
forage means all vegetable nutriment,
fresh or cured, which is consumed by
domestic animals. 1t includes Dastur-
age, browse, mast, green feed, hay,
straw, silage and grain. Besides the
forage harvested from these $4,000
600 acres, live stock consumed the
product of about 60OoO,OO0 acres OF
humid improved pasture, of probably
III 100000 acres Of humid unimprOved
grassland pasture over half of which
was in farms, and Of about 287OO0,-
900 acres of forest and cut-over pas
ture land in farms or under other
private ownership and in national
forests. Live stock also grazed over
perhaps 587OOO,O0Q acres of arid or
semiarid grass land in the West.
Hay and Forage.
These facts are held to warrant the
conclusion that live stock consumed
about three-fourths Of the product Of
the improved land in the country and
practically all the product of unim-
proved pastures and grazing land. In
this connection it is pointed out that
the census classification HAY and
Forage does not include many crops
usually USED for forage. 1t does not
include corn Except fodder, and
corn Is the most important Of all
crops used for forage. Thus the cen
sus report presents a very incomplete
picture Of our forage resources, when
the word forage is used in its broadcast
sense
The 257,0O0,O00 acres producing
crops for feed yielded slightly more
sustenance than the 1,O55,000 acres
used for pasture. More than one
fourtIl of the pasture land is in the
arid western range, and nearly one
fourth more is forest and cut-Over
land, having low capacity for carry
Ing live stock.
In the cotton belt In 1919 about So
per cent of the crop land was devoted
to the production of feed for live
stock, mostly corn, cowpeas, velvet
beans and peanuts. About 81 per cent
of the land in this region was In cot
ton, tobacco and other crops not used
as feed for live stock or as food for
man, except incidentally. Less than
10 per cent was devoted to the pro-
duction Of food consumed directly by
man.
In the corn and winter wheat region
nearly three-fourths Of the crop land
in 1919 produced forage for live stock.
The remaining fourth produced food
except on 2 per cent Of the area, which
was devoted to tobacco. In the corn
belt, where all the hay and nearly all
the corn and oats are fed to live stocly,
about "a per cent Of the crop land
produced forage for farm animals, and
only Is per cent produced food for
man. Only one-fifth Of / per cent
of the crop area in the corn belt was
used for other than feed or food crops.
Hay Is Dominant Crop.
Hay is the dominant crop in the hay
and dairying regions to the North and
East. 1t occupies about S3 per cent
OF the crop land, and corn for fodder
and silage occupies nearly per cent
more. More than 80 per cent Of the
crop land in this area is used to grow
oats, barley, corn and other crops for
feed About 80 per cent is devoted to
crops used for human food.
In the humid eastern half of the
United States, considered as a whole,
one-fourth of the crop land is used
to grow corn for grain, another fourth
for hay, fodder and silage, and a fifth
for oats and other feed crops. The
remaining 80 per cent produces most
of the food used directly for human
consumption in the United States and
over half Of the cotton fiber of the
world. More than three-fifths of the
crop area in the western half of the
United States is used for the produc-
ton of forage. This territory, of
course, is largely semiarid or arid, and
is mostly in pasture or range land.
Nevertheless, the proportion Of west
ern crop land devoted to producing
feed for live stock is smaller than it
is in the East, owing largely to the
fact that wheat is one of the best
crops that can be grown on semiarid
land. Wheat occupied nearly one
third of the harvested crop land in
the western half of the United States
in 1919. Fruit is also relatively more
important in the West than in the
East.
Forage crops, however, do not bulk
so large in value as in area occupied.
Although 1t took about seven-tenths
Of the total crop area to produce our
harvested forage in 1919, the value Of
this forage was only little over half
of the farm value Of all crops The
average value of crops used for forage