Hay

Excerpts from the report: To have an adequate appreciation of hay and its place in American agriculture it is helpful to know something of its history, the requisites of the different hay plants, why hay is an important crop in some regions or sections and not in others, the factors that determine its place on the individual farm, and other broad economic and agronomic factors that are largely responsible for the position hay holds among our staple field crops. Consideration of these subjects in their logical order presents a "broad brush" picture which should make possible an appreciation of hay in its widest aspects. Nature has provided hay meadows of which man avails himself. Hay from these is called "native or wild hay," sometimes "prairie hay," and some of it "salt hay." Although the acreage of wild hay in the United States is very large, cultivated plants contribute by far the largest part of our total hay supply. Of these the perennials and certain biennials are of much the greatest importance both in acreage and production. The discussion immediately following is from the standpoint of perennial, cultivated hay plants. Hays from wild plants and from annual cultivated plants are included only as the discussion may incidentally relate to them, since the former in a sense is taken as it is found, and the latter may be regarded to a considerable degree as an emergency crop.