BROOMCORN 245 



with the corn binder and shocking it Uke corn, or by cutting 

 the heads from the stalks with knives or with some form of 

 header. The shocked sorghum may then be fed to stock Uke 

 corn fodder, or it may be threshed Uke small grain. The 

 kafir and milo heads may be stored in cribs like corn and fed 

 without threshing, or they may be threshed like wheat or 

 oats and only the threshed grain used for feeding. 



311. Value of the Grain. Most of the grain sorghum 

 crop is used for feeding to stock, for which purpose it is 

 nearly as valuable as corn. The seed is fed either whole or 

 crushed; slightly better results are usually obtained from the 

 crushed grain. The grain sorghums make up a large part 

 of the prepared poultry feeds which are on the market, con- 

 siderable quantities being used annually for this purpose. 

 Only a small portion of the crop is used for human food, 

 though very palatable breakfast foods, bread, and pan- 

 cakes may be prepared from kafir and milo. The stalks 

 and leaves of kafir, when properly cured, are fully as good 

 for forage as the same parts of the corn plant. Milo is less 

 leafy than kafir and the stalks are less palatable, so that 

 milo stover is less valuable than that from kafir. 



BROOMCORN 



312. Culture. Broomcorn is not a grain crop nor can it 

 be included with any other important class of crops, but it is 

 so closely related to the grain sorghums that it can best be 

 discussed with them. The methods of growing the crop 

 are not different from those employed in the production of 

 corn and the grain sorghums. Broomcorn is of two general 

 types, the standard and the dwarf. Standard broomcorn 

 grows from 8 to 10 feet high and produces a long, slender, 

 rather flexible brush; dwarf broomcorn grows from 4 to 6 

 feet high and usually produces a shorter, stiff er brush. The 

 crop is grown principally in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and 

 Oklahoma; the standard type is more largely grown in cen- 



