The Sokghums 671 



the effectiveness of the two feeds is probably due to the less amount 

 of fat in the sorghum grain. 



POISONING 



Sorghum is used very little as a pasture on account of the danger 

 of prussic acid poisoning. This poison seems more apt to form in 

 the leaves of sorghum when the growth of the plant has been 

 checked for any reason, as by frost or an acute spell of drought. 

 Many cases of poisoning are reported in pasturing second-growth 

 sorghum — in fact any abnormality in the growth of sorghum 

 seems to increase the danger of poisoning. On the whole it is not 

 safe to pasture immature sorghum, and care should be used in 

 feeding it green. The mature plant, especially when the growth 

 is normal, is rarely dangerous; and sorghum from which a seed 

 crop has been harvested can usually be pastured with perfect 

 safety. Curing the plant either as fodder or hay also appears to 

 eliminate the poison. Only one or two well-authenticated cases of 

 poisoning from the use of sorghum fodder are known, and these 

 hardly seem sufficient to warrant any restraint in feeding the 

 cured plant. 



DISEASES 



There are three diseases that cause more or less damage to 

 sorghums, and no adequate remedy for two of these has yet been 

 discovered. 



Kernel smut 



This disease affects the individual grains of the sorghum head. 

 The general appearance of the head is very little changed, but 

 most of the seeds in an affected head are destroyed. It can be 

 controlled by treating the seed with formalin or hot water before 

 planting, page 2758. 



Head smut 



This disease destroys the entire head of sorghum in much the 

 same way as ear smut does the ear of com. When the head 

 emerges from the sheath it is a mass of spores covered by a whitish 

 membrane. ]^o effective way of preventing this smut has been 

 found. 



