46 SOILING CROPS AND THE SILO. 



frosts arrive. While green and succulent it is easily 

 injured by frost. 



Cultivation. Harrowing sorghum is the only 

 mode of cultivation that may be resorted to when 

 it is sown on the broadcast plan, either by hand or 

 with the grain drill. It cannot be harrowed nearly 

 so much as corn, owing to the much greater delicacy 

 of the young plants, and when planted with the 

 grain drill the harrow may be more effectively used 

 than when the seed has been broadcasted, for then 

 the plants do not uproot so easily. Sorghum sown 

 with the grain drill may, usually, be harrowed with 

 benefit to the crop just when the first blades are 

 pushing through the soil. The harrow used should 

 be light, of a broad sweep and the teeth of the same 

 should be slanted backward to the greatest possible 

 extent when the work is being done. No little dif- 

 ference of opinion prevails as to the degree of the 

 benefit arising from harrowing the crop after it has 

 got well through the soil. It is at least question- 

 able if sorghum should be harrowed after the plants 

 appear until they get up several inches above the 

 surface. Before that period of advancement they 

 are easily uprooted and also easily buried in the 

 process of harrowing. The quick growth of sor- 

 ghum will certainly be promoted by harrowing, but 

 the crop should not be harrowed to the extent of 

 making the plants too few to produce a maximum 

 of forage. Where it is intended to use the harrow 

 freely on the young plants, enough additional seed 

 should be sown to allow for the expected loss. 



In sections deficient in moisture, it is more nec- 

 essary to use the harrow freely than in those opposite 



