132 One Thousand Questions in Agriculture 



a good, satisfactory brush cannot be grown on dry plains, although 

 a good product is made in the river bottoms not far away. But 

 there are so few people in California who understand how to handle 

 broom corn to produce a good commercial article, and there are 

 such rigid requirements in the size, quality, etc., that those who 

 break into the business without proper knowledge cannot command 

 even profitable prices. Therefore, if your enterprise is conducted 

 with a full knowledge and with proper local conditions it would 

 not encounter such a local disadvantage in the great increase of 

 the product as one might think at first. 



Smutty Sorghum. 



The various plantings of Egyptian corn on the ranch have turned 

 smutty, very much after the manner of wheat and barley. Is there any 

 unusual reason for this, or could irrigation have caused it, and what is 

 the best method of preventing itf 



Sorghum is afifected by a smut similar to that of other grains. 

 It is due to the introduction of the germ of the disease which 

 comes with the use of smutty seed. Possibly the growth of the 

 smut may have been promoted by moisture arising from soil ren- 

 dered very wet by irrigation, and for this plant free irrigation should 

 not be used, because it will do more with less water than any other 

 plant we are growing, and is likely to be more thrifty in a drier 

 atmosphere. Get seed for next year from an absolutely clean field; 

 get as much growth as you can without irrigation, and then use 

 water in moderate quantities as may be necessary, followed by a 

 cultivation for the drying of the surface. 



Late-sown Sorghum. 



Hozv late can Egyptian corn be planted on good sediment soil capable 

 of grozving 40 to 50 sacks of barley per acre in good years with ordinary 

 rain? The Held was cut this year for hay on account of rank groivth 

 of ivild oats, after irrigating; land is still moist. Can I put in Egyptian 

 corn with an assurance of crop, or is it too latef How much seed should 

 be planted to the acre, also should seed be drilled in or broad-casted? 



There is no difficulty in getting a start of Egyptian corn during 

 the dry season providing the soil contains moisture enough to 

 germinate the seed. Afterward the growth will be more or less 

 according to the moisture present and will be available for forage 

 purposes. Whether a seed crop can be had by late sowing depends 

 upon the frost occurrence in the particular locality, for it only takes 

 a light frost to destroy the plant. To get the best results, particu- 

 larly with late sowing, the seeds should be drilled in rows far enough 

 apart for horse cultivation; about forty pounds of seed to the acre. 

 What you get in this way will depend upon the amount of moisture 

 in the soil and the duration of the frost-freedom. 



