CHAPTER VIII. 



SILAGE CROPS FOR THE SEMI-ARID REGIONS 

 AND FOR THE SOUTH. 



In those parts of the Southwest including the Great Plains 

 region, where limited precipitation, evaporation and temperature 

 conditions combine to make moisture conservation the vital prob- 

 lem, the silo is finding one of its greatest fields of usefulness. 



It is generally conceded that when it can be grown success- 

 fully, corn is pre-eminently the silage crop. In many sections, 

 however, corn does not mature or make sufficient yield, either in 

 fodder or grain, to justify its use as compared with other crops 

 well adapted to the siloing system, which do not require nearly so 

 much moisture, and it is of these crops that we wish to speak in 

 this chapter. Stockmen are beginning to realize that they must 

 have a permanent feed supply, one that will produce a good yield 

 even under drouth conditions, or the live stock industry itself 

 cannot be permanent, and the haphazard method of depending 

 entirely on Nature's offerings for the present need is fast becom- 

 ing obsolete. With the ability of Western Kansas, for instance, 

 to produce crops such as kafir, milo, saccharine sorghum and the 

 broom corns, there is no reason why there should ever be a short- 

 age of feed such as the farmers of that section experienced in 

 the winter of 1911-12. 



The sorghums are the crops of first importance as silage in 

 the regions where moisture is the controlling factor in crop pro- 

 duction. The sweet sorghums have usually been considered a 

 poor substitute for corn in the silo, but the conditions under 

 which they are grown in regions of light rainfall, to a large ex- 

 tent, overcome the difficulty which is found in other sections of 

 the country. If they are allowed to mature quite fully before they 

 are cut for the silo, they do not form an abnormal amount of 

 acid as they do when cut too green, or when grown under heavy 

 rainfall . conditions. 



For convenient reference the matter that follows has been 

 classified under various states, although it should be remembered 

 that the discussion relative to one state is very often applicable to 



160 



