Grasses and legumes for South Dakota.

Farm operators in South Dakota are seeding considerable acreages of previously cropped land back to grasses and legumes. In recent years the state agricultural experiment stations and the United States Department of Agriculture have introduced or developed species of grasses and legumes which are superior to our native types for seed, hay and grazing purposes. A few outstanding contributions in this field of research have been the work with crested wheatgrass, Ree wheatgrass, and Ladak, Cossack and Ranger alfalfa. Grasses and legumes rank far ahead of any other crop in importance in this state. At present, more than 28,400,000 acres (Fig. 1), twice the acreage of all other crops combined, are in grasses and legumes which furnish a major portion of feed for our grazing animals. An increase in the acreage of grasses and legumes has been adopted as a national policy because forage crops not only aid in conserving the soil but contribute to a better balanced agriculture.