SORGHUM. 39 



Sowing. Sorghum should not be sown until 

 the weather has become decidedly warm. No good 

 can result from sowing it sooner, even though the 

 seed should germinate. It will not make any marked 

 advance in growth until the arrival of settled warm 

 weather, and if kept practically standing still after 

 it has sprouted, it would seem to lose much of its 

 natural power to grow on the return of weather 

 favorable to its progress. Sorghum sown late, under 

 favorable conditions as to growth, will produce more 

 and better forage, and at an earlier period, than sor- 

 ghum sown several weeks earlier, but which has been 

 severely checked in its growth by weather unduly 

 cool. This has been demonstrated more than once 

 in the experience of the author. 



Of course, no date can be fixed upon for sowing 

 sorghum that would be equally applicable to all parts 

 of the country. Nor would it be applicable to sec- 

 tions on the same parallel of latitude. The mean tem- 

 perature, as is well known, differs widely with a dif- 

 ference in altitude and a difference of distance from 

 large bodies of water. No better rule probably can 

 be given for sowing sorghum than that which would 

 invariably delay sowing until toward the close of the 

 corn-planting season. And where there is moisture 

 enough to produce a crop of forage the sowing may 

 be continued in warm or mild latitudes until within 

 eight to ten weeks of the arrival of frost. Frost will 

 injure sorghum more readily than corn, hence the 

 aim should be to delay sowing until the spring frosts 

 have disappeared, and to have the crop eaten off by 

 the time that the autumn frosts arrive. 



Sorghum is frequently sown broadcast to pro- 

 vide soiling food and also winter fodder. But this 



