266 FORAGE PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE 



314. Importance. The relative importance of the 

 sorghum as forage in America is difficult to estimate, 

 mainly on account of the four purposes grain, forage, 

 sirup and brooms for which the crop is grown. The 

 importance of the crop for much of the semi-arid region, 

 especially the unirrigated lands between longitude 98 W. 

 and the Rocky Mountains, is so great that over much of 

 the region it forms the basis of possible agriculture. In 

 more humid areas it comes into competition with corn. 

 Other competitive crops like teosinte and penicillaria have 

 practically been driven from American agriculture by 

 sorghum, but in Florida and the Gulf Coast region Japan- 

 ese sugar-cane will give larger forage returns than sorghum, 

 but the latter is grown on account of its usefulness in 

 rotations. 



The statistics of sorghums, at least the sweet sorghums, 

 are not very satisfactory. According to the Thirteenth 

 United States Census the total acreage of sorghum was as 

 follows : 



Sorghum for sirup 444,089 acres 



Broom-corn 326,102 acres 



Kafir and milo 1,635,153 acres 



2,405,344 acres 



Some of the sorghum is also reported under the heading 

 " Coarse forage," but it is impossible to estimate how 

 much. 



According to the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 

 there was grown in that state in 1910 acreage as follows : 

 sorgo, 512,621; milo, 100,700; kafir, 636,201. Of the 

 sorgo the product of only 12,879 acres was pressed for 

 sirup. 



315. Culture. - Sorghum is grown for forage either in 



