SILAGE CROPS IN THE SOUTH. 171 



writes us as follows: "For a number of reasons the production 

 of silage is one of the most important phases of stock husbandry 

 in the South. There has been an ill-founded opinion that since 

 there is such a long- growing season in the cotton section, silage is 

 not of so much importance as in some of the northern sections. 

 From experimental work we believe that it is impossible to pro- 

 duce 100 pounds of beef or a gallon of milk as economically 

 without silage as can be done with it. 



"Alternate rows of sorghum and corn will give us from three 

 to five tons of silage per acre depending on the quality of the 

 land, more than can be secured from corn alone. We believe that 

 sorghum and corn silage is equal to corn silage alone, though it 

 is vastly superior to all sorghum silage. Aside from the increased 

 tonnage, sorghum is much more drought resistant than corn. 

 Even in extremely dry weather, we have never failed to get a 

 fairly satisfactory yield of silage where sorghum constituted one- 

 half of the crop. In addition to this, the sorghum carries con- 

 siderable juice so that we are able to allow the corn to stand 

 until it has developed the maximum amount of nutrients before 

 harvesting. The sorghum then gathers sufficient moisture and 

 weight to insure good packing and keeping. 



"We have gotten better results from the use of Red Head 

 sorghum than any of the other varieties. It has a thick, heavy 

 stalk, with heavy foliage, and at the same time it has the ability 

 to stand up better than most other varieties. Any heavy stalk 

 and vigorous growing variety of corn is satisfactory. During the 

 past two years we have gotten better results from Cocke's Prolific 

 than from Virginia ensilage corn on the College Farm." 



For Alabama, Mr. S. I. Bechdel, dairyman at the Experiment 

 Station at Auburn, recommends the use of a good prolific corn in 

 connection with pea-vines or soy beans, although sorghum is now 

 used to a considerable extent throughout the state. Some of the 

 farmers in the southern part of the state are enthusiastic over 

 the use of sorghum as a silage crop because it enables them to 

 get some other crop off earlier in the spring and get sorghum 

 in in time to make silage before frost. 



Corn and sorghum in about equal parts are recommended in 

 Louisiana for good silage. Planting corn or sorghum during the 

 latter half of June on land from which oats or other crops have 



