Show principal crops used for forage domestic animals consume three fourths of product of improved land Prepa prepared reI by ibe the united unite d states state department or of agrico agriculture 1 ture t f seven tenths of the acres tit land occupied by crops harvested in the census year 1910 were used to brodu produce ce forage that Is concentrates find and roughage tor for live stock says the department of agriculture in a review ot or forage resources based on census data and other material the area used to produce forage in 1010 1919 wits was approximately acres this compares with acres or about two tenths of the total crop area used tor for producing food for fir human consumption and acres or about one tenth of the crop urea area used for or other purposes principally to grow glow cotton tobacco find flux flax As used by the department the term forage means all vegetable nutriment fresh or cured which Is 13 consumed by domestic doin e astle animals it includes pasturage browse mast green feed liny bay straw silage and grain besides the forage harvested from these acres live stock consumed tile the product of about acres of humid improved pos posture tuie of probably acres of humid unimproved grassland pasture over halt half of which was in farms and of about acres of forest foiest ond cut over pasture land in farms or under other private ownership and in national forests live stock also grazed over perhaps acres of arid or ld 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 oil all tile the product of unimproved pastures and grazing land in this connection it Is pointed out that the census classification ilay hay and forage does not include many crops usually used for forage it do does not mot include corn except fodder and corn la Is the most important of all crops used for forage thus the conus bus report presents a very incomplete picture of our forage resources sources le when the word forage Is used in its broadest cense the acres producing crops for fir feed yielded slightly more sustenance than the acres used for pasture more blore than one fourth of the he posture pasture land Is in the arld arid western range and nearly one fourth more moie la Is forest and cut over lend having low capacity for carrying live stock in the cotton belt in 1019 1919 about 1 per cent of the crop land was devoted to the pi production of feed for live stock mostly corn cow peas velvet beans mid and peanuts about 37 per cent of the annd ian in this region was in cotton toli reco and other crops not used u ed ns as feed for live stock or us as food for foi man except incidentally less than 10 per pel cent was devoted devote to the production of food consumed directly by man in the cin and winter cheat region henrly three fourths of the crop igind in 1019 1919 forage for live stock the th e reirin InIng fourth produced rooi food except on 2 per pel cent of the area which was devoted to tobacco in the corn coin belt 1 el I 1 where all the buy and nearly till nil the he corn and oats are fed to live stock about 84 per cent of the crop annd produced forage for farm animals anil and only 10 per cent produced food for inan only one fifth of I 1 per cent of the crop area in the corn coin belt was used for other than feed or food crops hay Is dominant crop liny hay Is the dominant crop in the tiny hay and dairying regions to the north and east it occupies about 31 33 per cent of the crop land and corn for fodder and silage occupies nearly 6 per cent more more alore own 30 per cent of the crop land in this area Is used to grow glow oats barley barlev corn coin and other crops for food feed about SO 30 per cent Is devoted to crops use usail for human food in the lie humid eastern half of the united states considered ns as a whole one fourth of the he crop land Is used to grow corn for grain another fourth for hay has fodder and and i fifth for ants ant and other feed crops the remaining SO 90 per cent produces most of the food used tired directly fur for human consumption in the united states and over half of thet the cotton fiber of at the world more blore than three fifths of tin the crop area in the western half of the united states Is used for the production of forage tills this territory of course la Is largely semiarid or arid and la is mostly in pasture or range land nevertheless the proportion of western crop land devoted to producing feed for or live stock Is smaller than it vis pa 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 1010 1911 fruit fault Is also relatively more important in the th west than in the east forage crops however lio wever do not hulk bulk so 0 o largo large in value as in area occupied although it took about seven tenths of the total crop area to produce our harvested forage in 1010 1910 the value of ails his forage was cair tx a little over half ot of the farm value of fill all crops the average value of crops used tor for forage in that year was an acre compared with for food crops wheat fruits vegetables etc and for or the fiber aber anal and other crops |