52 FORAGE CROPS. 



thick and short and oval in shape, and the produc- 

 tion of seed is abundant. It does not produce so 

 much fodder as Milo maize. 



Jerusalem corn (Fig. 13) grows to a less hight 

 than the other non-saccharine sorghums. The stems 

 are heavy and the leaf growth is not abundant. The 

 heads are large, thick and heavy, and are suspended 

 on short stems resembling in their curve the neck of 

 a goose. This plant would seem to be better adapted 

 relatively to the production of seed than of fodder. 



Teosinte (Reana luxurians) is not erect, but 

 branching in its habit of growth. It is claimed that 

 as many as sixty stems have been produced from one 

 seed. The plant suckers wonderfully and produces 

 a great mass of long slender leaves. It has 

 been affirmed that in some of the Gulf states a 

 greater weight of green food can be obtained from 

 teosinte than from any variety of the non-saccharine 

 sorghums. It grows slowly for a time, but more 

 rapidly as the plants become older. 



The non-saccharine sorghums bear no little 

 resemblance to one another in their habits of growth. 

 Chief among these resemblances are the following: 

 First, the seed of each is slow in germinating, con- 

 siderably more so than the seed of corn. The growth 

 is also relatively slower for a time, although in the 

 later stages thereof it is quite rapid. Second, the 

 plants are more tender than those of corn when 

 young, but when more advanced they are better able 

 to withstand vicissitudes of weather, and more espe- 

 cially such as arise from drouth. Third, with the 

 exception of teosinte, they all produce seed from a 

 head which grows on the top of the seed stem that 

 pushes upward from each plant. Teosinte produces 



