318 FIELD CROPS 



is cut with the corn binder and handled m every way hke 

 corn. When sown in close rows, the plants make a fine 

 growth which can be cured readily into hay. The rate of 

 seeding in rows wide apart is from 8 to 20 pounds to the acre; 

 when sown with a grain drill and not cultivated, 50 or 75 

 pounds of seed is required; while for broadcast seeding for 

 hay, as occasionally practiced, 75 to 100 pounds is neces- 

 sary. The more common method is to sow in wide drills 

 and cultivate like corn. The seed should not be planted till 

 after corn planting is finished, since it will germinate only 

 in warm weather. In some sections, cowpeas or soy beans 

 are planted with sorghum for hay or for silage, and millet 

 is occasionally sown with it for hay production. The meth- 

 ods of handling for fodder and for silage are not different 

 from those in common use with the corn crop. 



417. Uses. The principal use of sorghum is as a coarse 

 forage crop to take the place of corn in sections where the 

 climate is too dry for the successful production of that crop. 

 The yield of forage produced by sorghum in the South, even 

 where the rainfall is abundant, is usually larger than that 

 produced by corn, and the prevailing opinion is that it can 

 be cured more readil3\ The feeding value of sorghum fodder 

 is not as high as that of corn fodder which is well-eared, but 

 is higher than that of corn stover, and the sorghum is 

 more palatable. In the North, sorghum is more often used 

 as a soiling crop than as a dry fodder. It is readily eaten by 

 all kinds of stock, and is valuable during the late summer 

 and early fall months for supplementing blue grass pastures, 

 which are usually short at that time. 



Sorghum is used to some extent as silage, though the 

 silage is not so good as that which is made from well-matured 

 com. It is, however, succulent and palatable, and when sup- 

 plemented with good hay and cottonseed meal or some other 

 concentrate, it is an excellent feed for dairy cows and other 

 classes of stock during the winter months. It is also a 



