SORGHUM. 45 



of the plant. When sorghum is grazed by sheep, 

 more pasture will be obtained if the ground thus 

 grazed can be divided into two or three sections and 

 if the sheep are grazed on these alternately. Sor- 

 ghum may thus be pastured off two or three or four 

 times in a season, according to conditions of soil and 

 climate. 



Sometimes sorghum is grown, as described 

 above, to produce soiling food, and when one cutting 

 has been taken from it, the next or second growth is 

 pastured off. A very large amount of forage may 

 thus be obtained when all the conditions are 

 favorable. 



The aim should be to have sorghum grazed off 

 before the arrival of killing frosts. It is easily injured 

 by the frost, and when so injured live stock do not 

 relish it. They w r ill eat it under pressure, but do not 

 seem fond of it. 



The claim has been made that there is considera- 

 ble hazard to animals, especially cattle, when pas- 

 tured on second growth sorghum. At the Minne- 

 sota experiment station we have not found it so dur- 

 ing three successive seasons of pasturing, beginning 

 with 1895. But our experience relates only to pas- 

 turing with sheep. A view of sheep pasturing on 

 second growth sorghum is presented in Fig. 8. The 

 first season some fifty-three animals, young and old, 

 were pastured on the sorghum, the second year an 

 average of eighty-six head, and the third year an 

 average of ninety-three head. But one animal, a 

 lamb, was lost while feeding on the sorghum, and 

 the cause of death in that instance arose from a lung 

 affection, and not from eating sorghum. There are, 

 however, well-authenticated instances wherein cattle 



