greatly the cost of finishing
of beef animals for market. This year the velvet bean has been no small
factor in helping out the great shortage of foodstuffs, quantities of
them having been shipped to Texas. Finally, it has resulted in a new
industry for the South, namely, the manufacture of velvet bean meal,
which has already won for itself a large demand.

Hay Plants.

The problem of producing hay in Florida is made particularly difficult
by frequent rains, except in the fall of the year. The bulk of the hay
now produced is from the crab grass that volunteers in cultivated
fields. In recent years much Natal hay has been grown for market. Para
grass hay is of good quality, and Rhodes grass of very fine quality.
Other hays are made from cow peas, cow peas and sorghum mixed, Mexican
clover, beggar-weed, oats, millet, etc.

The subject of hay, however, is vital only to the city market. To the
live stock man it is of minor importance, as silage furnishes so
satisfactory a substitute.

Ensilage Crops.

Corn is, of course, the standard crop for ensilage, and its relative
importance in Florida is not far different from that in other States.

Under certain conditions sorghums will yield greater tonnage than corn,
and the resulting silage is but slightly inferior.

Florida possesses, in addition, a unique silage plant in Japanese sugar
cane. The perennial nature of this plant and its high yielding capacity
make it a cheap fodder to grow. It may be utilized as green feed, as
silage, as dry fodder, or for pasture. Your own experiment station has
published the best information we have on this forage. As a feed for
dairy cows there can be no question of its high value, either green or
as silage. There still seems to be question, however, as to the relative
value of Japanese cane silage as compared with corn silage. In Southern
Florida the cane stays green all winter, as a rule, so that there is no
necessity for ensiling it for winter feed. It may well prove, however,
that a supply of Japanese cane silage will prove good insurance against
periods of shortage even in South Florida.

You may have noted that all the pasture plants I have mentioned are
grasses. Very unfortunately we have not as yet any good perennial
pasture legume adapted to Florida. I say "unfortunately" because, as is
well known, the true grasses are nutritious in proportion to the
fertility of the land. That is, the better the land the more nutritious
t