FORAGE CROPS 229 



safe to sow oats. An excellent use of rape consists in sowing it 

 in corn just following the last plowing of the corn, in which 

 case it usually makes good late autumn pasture for hogs or sheep 

 (Fig. 109). The yield of pasturage from rape is usually so large 

 that a small area will supply the needs of the average farm. 



302. The millets. Millet as used in the United States is a 

 somewhat general term and includes a number of unrelated 

 cereals and forage plants having small seeds. Millet seed is 

 used extensively in India, Japan, Korea, and China for human 

 food. In the United States the millets are of considerable im- 

 portance for the production of forage, though this is chiefly as 

 a catch crop, to supply in a rotation the place intended to be 

 occupied by some other crop. The most important millet is the 

 so-called German, or foxtail, millet. This millet is very old and 

 is said to be one of five species of plants sown each year by the 

 emperor of China in a public ceremony, in accordance with a 

 command given twenty-seven hundred years before the Christian 

 era. Hungarian, or common, millet and Japanese millet are also 

 grown quite generally in the United States. 



QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 



1. What is the origin of the sorghums? 



2. What is the origin of the sorgos, and for what are they now princi- 

 pally used ? What are the leading varieties ? 



3. Where is each of the chief varieties of broom corn grown? How is 

 broom corn harvested ? How used ? 



4. What are the chief broom-corn markets ? 



5. What are the principal uses for kafir? 



6. Under what kinds of soil and climate is kafir grown ? 



7. Compare the durras with the kafirs in characteristics, feed value, 

 and production. 



8. What may be said of the general adaptability of the sorghums? 

 Are sorghums better adapted to regions of abundant rainfall or to semiarid 

 regions ? 



9. How are sorghums usually cultivated and harvested? 

 10. For what is rape chiefly valuable ? 



