32 FORAGE CROPS. 



inches, it grows very rapidly. When less than a foot 

 high, sorghum forage is a mass of leaves, and makes 

 a decidedly beautiful appearing forage crop. When 

 a foot high or thereabouts, it joints and sends up 

 stems or canes with much quickness. In grazing it 

 off therefore, especially with sheep, it is important 

 that it is eaten down before the crop has reached the 

 stage when it is common to begin to cut it for soiling, 

 that is to say, while it is not yet more than from one 

 to two feet high. When grazed down, it at once 

 springs up again. The pasture is likely to be thicker 

 in the second growth than it was in the first, 

 because of the increased number of sprouts that 

 spring from the root. 



Sorghum has much power to withstand dry 

 weather, when once it has become established. It 

 will grow under certain conditions where corn would 

 curl in the leaf and shrivel from want of moisture. 

 In its power to grow under dry conditions it will 

 rival Kaffir corn, and when the crop has become so 

 imperiled through long continued drouth that it 

 shows signs of languishing, it has much power to 

 revive again when rain falls. 



As a forage plant it is not usually grown in cul- 

 tivation with other forage plants, and for the reason, 

 first, that when sown thickly it fully occupies the 

 ground, and, second, that it at once begins to grow 

 again when eaten down, thus rendering it unneces- 

 sary to sow a crop along with the sorghum to furnish 

 forage after the latter has been grazed off. But 

 some forage plants may be sown along with it to pro- 

 vide a variety in the pasture. These will be referred 

 to again. 



Distribution. — There is probably no plant 



