Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

three of uncertain origin, making the total number of cultivated species 248.1 He classifies the species as follows:

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

6. Classification.-No classification of the field crops of the United States can be made that will be entirely satisfactory and even if it could be made so, would not remain satisfactory, on account of new uses to which plants are constantly being put. The following classification will be used in this chapter, viz., cereals, grasses, legumes, tubers, roots, sugar plants, fibers, stimulants, medicinal and aromatic plants and miscellaneous crops. The following table shows the total area devoted to each of these classes of crops and their value as reported by census of 1900:

Cereals

Area and Value of Field Crops in 1899, in U. S.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

1 Origin of Cultivated Plants. By A. De Candolle, pp. 436-446. 2 Of the total area in hay and forage crops, 6.7 per cent was devoted to clover, 50.7 per cent to tame and cultivated grasses other than clover, 6.3 per cent to grains cut green for hay, 5.1 per cent to forage crops, 3.4 per cent to alfalfa, 2.8 per cent to millet and Hungarian grasses and 25.1 per cent to wild, salt and prairie grass.-Twelfth Census, Bul. 237, p. 14.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The total area in field and garden crops was approximately 290 million acres, while the total area of improved land was given at 415 million acres. This probably means that 125 million acres were in pasture. The area devoted to hay and pasture was therefore substantially the same as that given to the cereals. About one acre in thirty of the cultivated area was devoted to fruits and vegetables, while their value was about one-tenth that of the field crops.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

7.

a cereal.

Acreage of cereals, Census, 1900.

Cereals. Any grass grown for its edible grain is called The term is applied both to the plant as a whole and to the grain itself. According to this definition, buckwheat is not a cereal. It is, however, generally so classed because the seed is used in the same manner as the true cereals.

1 Refers to broom corn and hops.

The six great cereals of the world are wheat, rye, barley, maize, oats and rice. In addition to these the seed of the millet, or non-saccharine sorghum, is used largely by the peoples of southern Asia.

[subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

The relative Increase in population and production of cereals during 50 years. In all ages and in all countries the cereals have occupied the bulk of the cultivated area and have formed the principal ingredient in the dietary of the people, as well as forming an important part of the food of domestic animals. Rye is the leading cereal of northern Europe and barley of southern Europe, while rice is the leading cereal of Asia. In the United States the three just mentioned occupy a minor place, while maize, wheat and oats occupy by far the largest part of the cultivated area. The following table shows the proportion of the area of each cereal to all the cereals raised in the United States in 1899:1

1 Twelfth Census. Vol. VI, p. 14.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

8.

Grasses.-The area devoted to pasture, hay and forage crops in the United States is greater than that devoted to any other single crop, and the product is of greater value than any other. This, however, includes some of the legumes which are used for pasture, hay or forage.

There are about 3500 known species of true grasses, divided into about 300 genera. In the United States there are now known to be about 1380 species (1275 native and 105 introduced), divided among 165 genera (140 native and 25 introduced). W. J. Beal has described 809 native species and 103 exotic species.1

Lamson-Scribner gives the number of the best known and most valuable grasses for different purposes as follows: thirtyeight hay grasses, thirty-five pasture grasses, fourteen lawn grasses, twenty-four grasses for wet lands, twenty grasses for embankments, nineteen grasses for holding shifting sands. In a number of instances the same grass occurs in two or more different classes.

The principal cultivated grasses for hay are timothy and red top, the latter being especially adapted to wet lands, while Kentucky blue grass in the northern and Bermuda grass in the southern portions of the United States are the principal ones used for pastures and lawns.

9. Legumes for Hay and Pasture.-There are in the leguminous or pea family about 310 genera and about 5000 species. 1 Grasses of North America Vol. II, 1896.

There are about 250 species in the genus Trifolium and about fifty species in the genus Medicago: the two genera to which most of the plants used for hay and pasture belong. The census for 1900 reports the total yield of alfalfa hay in the United States as slightly larger than that of clover hay from about one-half the area. The clover species commonly used for hay are common red clover, mammoth red clover, alsike clover and crimson clover, of which the first occupies much the largest area. The vetch is grown somewhat, principally in the Pacific Coast States. The cowpea has become an important forage crop in the Southern States.

All the legumes above mentioned are grown more or less for pasturage. In addition, white or Dutch clover in the North and Japan clover in the South are distinctively pasture crops.

10. Legumes for Seeds. The principal legumes raised for their seeds are field beans, field peas, cowpeas and peanuts. The soy bean is also attracting some attention as a seed crop as well as a forage crop. New York and Michigan are the leading states for the production of field beans; Michigan and Wisconsin for field peas; Georgia and South Carolina for cowpeas, and Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama for peanuts.

II. Forage Crops.-In its best signification the word "forage" means any kind of food for animals, whether hay, straw, grain, roots, etc. Often, however, it is used to apply to the whole plant or portions of plants other than the seeds, and thus to those foods containing a large proportion of cellulose or crude fiber.

In a more limited and technical sense a forage crop is an annual crop in which the whole plant is used for food. Thus maize is a cereal crop when the ears are husked and fed separately, while it is a forage crop when the whole plant is fed together either dried or ensilaged. Most of the plants used for forage are either grasses or legumes. Among the grasses the

« AnteriorContinuar »