MINOR CEREALS 169 



for fattening steers at the Texas Station. (745) Fed to dairy cows and 

 swine in large amounts, even when not rancid, it injures the quality of 

 milk and produces soft pork. (980) 



Rice polish, which has a feeding value equal to corn, carries slightly 

 more crude protein and considerably more fat, but correspondingly less 

 nitrogen-free extract. It is used chiefly for feeding swine and cattle. 

 (745, 980) 



Only low-grade rough rice and hulled rice are commonly fed to stock. 

 Dodson of the Louisiana Station 4 values rough rice at 7 and hulled rice 

 at 16 per ct. more than corn. Hulled rice is the richest of all cereals in 

 carbohydrates, but relatively low in crude protein and fat. Since no ill 

 effects from the hulls have been known to follow the feeding of rough 

 rice, it may replace corn in the rations of farm animals. On account of 

 the hardness of the kernels it gives better results when ground. The 

 Texas Station 5 found that ground damaged rice had about half the value 

 of cottonseed meal for fattening steers. Red rice, a pest in rice fields, 

 equals the cultivated grain in feeding value. (745) 



II. SORGHUMS AND MILLETS 



Numberless millions of people in India, China, and Africa rely on the 

 sorghums and millets for their bread. Church 6 tells us that 33,000,000 

 acres of land in India are annually devoted to growing the millets and 

 the sorghums including the kafirs, milos, etc. a greater area, he re- 

 ports, than is devoted to wheat, rice, and Indian corn combined. Ball 7 

 writes that thruout Africa on the dry plains, in the oases of the Sahara, 

 on high plateaus, in mountain valleys, and in tropical jungles the sor- 

 ghums are the one ever-present crop. Their forms are as diverse as the 

 conditions under which they grow, the plants ranging in height from 3 

 to 20 feet, with heads of different shapes varying from 5 to 25 inches in 

 length. 



The sorghums, Andropogon sorghum or Sorghum vulgwre, vars., may 

 be divided into two classes the saccharine sorghums, having stems filled 

 with sweet juices, and the non-saccharine varieties, with more pithy stems 

 and juice sour or only slightly sweet. The Indian corn plant never gives 

 satisfactory returns if once its growth is checked. The sorghums may 

 cease growing and their leaves shrivel during periods of excessive heat 

 and drought ; yet when these conditions pass and the soil becomes moist 

 again, they quickly resume growth. This quality gives to this group of 

 plants great worth and vast importance as grain crops for the southern 

 portion of the semi-arid plains region. Their value in this section is 

 well shown by the fact that between 1899 and 1921 the acreage in the 

 United States of grain sorghums increased from 266,000 to 4,652,000 

 acres, the yield of grain in 1921 being 115,110,000 bushels. 



La. Planter, 44, 6, p. 92, "Food Grains in India, 1901. 



B Tex. Bui. 86. 'Yearbook, U. S. Dept. Agr., 1913. 



