Sorghums and Millets. 147 



a, white, tallowy butter and pork of low quality fails if they are 

 not given in excess. Hayward and Weld of the Pennsylvania Sta- 

 tion 1 conclude from feeding trials that for milk and butter pro- 

 duction buckwheat middlings are equal to dried brewers' grains. 

 (634) Buckwheat by-products may be successfully fed in limited 

 amounts to other farm animals. When stored in bulk, buckwheat 

 by-products are liable to heat unless first mixed with some other 

 light feed like wheat bran. 



III. SORGHUMS AND MILLETS. 



Numberless millions of human beings in India, China, and Africa 

 rely on the sorghums and millets as their bread grain. Church 2 

 tells us that in India alone over 33,000,000 acres of land are an- 

 nually devoted to growing the millets, including the sorghums, kafirs, 

 milos, etc. a greater area, he reports, than is devoted to wheat, 

 rice, and Indian corn combined. 



The sorghums, Andropogon sorghum or Sorghum vulgar e,va,rs., 

 may be divided into two classes the saccharine sorghums, having 

 stems filled with sweet juices, and kafir, milo, durra, and broom corn, 

 whose pithy stems have little or no sweet juice. The Indian corn 

 plant never gives satisfactory returns if once its growth has been 

 checked. The sorghums, however, may cease growing and their 

 leaves may 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 

 grain-bearing plants great worth and vast importance in the south- 

 western semi-arid plains region of the United States, up to an ele- 

 vation of 4,000 feet above sea level. 



181. Sweet sorghums. The sweet sorghums, which are used for 

 forage production rather than for grain, can be grown almost any- 

 where in the United States. At the Wisconsin Station 3 the author 

 secured amber cane seed at the rate of 32 bushels of 53 Ibs. each per 

 acre. Cook of the New Jersey Station 4 found amber cane seed 

 about 10 per ct. less valuable than Indian corn for dairy cows. 

 (629) Because of the value of the forage, both green and dry, and 

 also of the seed, the sweet sorghums should be grown at the North 

 to a far greater extent than at present. (861) 



182. Broom corn. In harvesting broom corn the heads are cut 

 before the seed has fully matured, and the seed is removed from the 



1 Bui. 41. * Ept. on Amber Cane, 1881. 



2 Food Grains in India, 1901. * Rpt. 1885. 



