Il8 THE FORAGE AND FIBER CROPS IN AMERICA 



six cuttings during a season. The plant when young is palatable 

 to domestic animals and fairly nutritious, but if allowed to 

 mature it is too coarse and woody to be eaten readily and is 

 less digestible. It should be cut when two to four feet in 

 height, four or five inches of stubble being left to permit quick 

 renewal of sprouting. Its period of growth, three to four 

 months, is longer than that of other millets. Yields are reported 

 ranging from 4 to 40 tons of green forage and from I to 16 

 tons of cured hay per acre. 1 For soiling, it is sown in drills 

 three feet or more apart at the rate of three to eight pounds per 

 acre, depending on character of the soil, and for hay, it may 

 be sown in drills 18 inches apart or broadcast at the rate of 

 one-half bushel of seed per acre. Seeding is done in early 

 April to last of May, always aiming to avoid frost. Although 

 widely advertised under at least 18 different names, 2 it has 

 not given general satisfaction, believed to be due, in part, to 

 the poor quality of the seed. A bushel of cleaned seed weighs 

 46 to 56 pounds. 



124. TEOSINTE (Euchlaena mexicana Schrad.). "This is the plant of which 

 Prof. Asa Gray said: 'Possibly affording an opportunity for one to make 

 millions of blades of grass grow where none of any account grew before.' At 

 the experiment stations of Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida, it has 

 given the heaviest yields of any of the forage crops grown, Georgia reporting 

 38,000 pounds of green forage per acre, Mississippi 44,000, and Louisiana 

 the enormous amount of over SO tons. It needs a long season of hot weather, 

 a rich soil, and abundant moisture in order to succeed well, and it is useless 

 to plant it where all these conditions cannot be had. It is a remarkably 

 vigorous grower, reaching 10 to 12 feet in height, with an unusually abundant 

 supply of leaves and tender stems, which continue to grow until killed by 

 frosts. If cut when it reaches 4 to 5 feet in height it makes excellent fodder, 

 and will produce a second crop fully as large as the first. If left to grow 

 until September or October it furnishes excellent material for the silo, in 

 greater amount per acre than either corn or sorghum, and there are few 

 plants which are its equal for soiling purposes. Its leaves are similar to 



1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bui. No. 168, p. 13. 



2 The most common synonyms of this plant on the market are pencilaria, 

 Maud's wonder, and cat-tail millet, so called from the resemblance of the 

 fruiting spike to that of cat-tail or flag of marshes. 



