SORGHUM. 49 



to be fed to the cattle and horses. As in feeding 

 corn, it may be fed within a pasture, in racks, feed 

 lots, or mangers in the stables. 



Some care is necessary, especially when the 

 feeding begins to limit the amount fed, or to feed it 

 in a somewhat wilted condition, lest it should cause 

 hoven or bloat. Inattention at this point may lead 

 to serious loss, but green sorghum is less liable to 

 produce hoven than clover or alfalfa. The amount 

 that may be given daily need not be limited except 

 by the needs of the live stock, unless for a few days 

 at the first. However, more satisfactory results will 

 follow when some other food less succulent is given. 

 Sorghum may also be fed to live stock with great 

 advantage in the matured form, on what may be 

 termed the soiling plan of feeding. When thus fed 

 it is common to cut the crop with the binder or 

 mower, but more commonly with the latter. The 

 sorghum is then allowed to lie on the ground for sev- 

 eral days before being gathered together, especially 

 when it is not well matured, or when the weather is 

 damp. It does not take injury from rain as corn 

 would when thus exposed. The outside of the stem 

 is hard, hence the rain does not penetrate it. But 

 some injury is done through the soil that adheres to 

 it. It is true, nevertheless, that sorghum exposed 

 thus and lying on the ground for a period of two or 

 three weeks in rainy weather has been eaten subse- 

 quently and with a relish by live stock. It is drawn 

 into windrows, by using a strong rake, and is then 

 put into large "cocks" or heaps by hand. 



When the crop is very heavy, it may be bunched 

 without first having been raked. In such cocks 

 4 



