CHAPTER III. 



SORGHUM. 



Sorghum (Sorghum vulgare var. sac char atum) 

 has not been very extensively grown as a food for 

 live stock on any part of the continent, but for sev- 

 eral years past its great value for such a use has been 

 known to a limited number of farmers in various 

 centers, and in many instances it has been fed by 

 those farmers with very satisfactory results. It is 

 probably true that in Kansas more sorghum has been 

 grown to provide food for live stock than in any 

 other state in the Union, but in some of the states 

 which border upon Kansas, and in others farther 

 south, more or less sorghum has been grown for 

 stock within the past few years. The idea has gone 

 abroad, and rightly, too, that sorghum is more deli- 

 cate and slower in growth than corn. But the gen- 

 erally accepted view based on this idea, viz., that to 

 grow sorghum and to keep it clean involves great 

 labor is only partially correct. When sown on 

 ground well prepared and clean on and near the 

 surface, it requires no more labor subsequent to the 

 sowing of the seed to grow sorghum than to grow 

 corn. But it is frequently necessary to expend more 

 labor in cleaning and mellowing the seed bed for this 

 crop than in preparing the same for corn. If sown 

 on land foul with weed seeds within the surface 

 strata of the soil, the weeds will start in advance 



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