40 FORAGE CROPS. 



mode of sowing it, as compared with drill sowing", 

 not only calls for more seed, but is attended with 

 greater hazard. It calls for more seed because of the 

 imperfect covering given to the same by the harrow. 

 In dry, hot weather that portion of the seed lying 

 near the surface will not germinate, even though the 

 ground should be moist below. And when the crop 

 is harrowed, more plants will be torn out by the har- 

 row than if the seed had been sown with the drill. 

 The hazard is also greater for the reason that, if dry 

 weather should follow the season of germination, the 

 plants that have rooted nearest the surface will be 

 the first to suffer. But in the absence of a seed drill 

 it may be thus sown with the expectation that ordi- 

 narily many of the seeds will fail to produce plants, 

 hence much seed ought to be sown. 



There is no better mode of sowing it than with 

 the grain drill. When thus sown, ordinarily all the 

 tubes should plant seed. But in areas where moisture 

 is wont to be scant, every alternate tube only should 

 be in use. The seed should not be covered deeply, 

 never more deeply than one and one-half to two 

 inches, as in the black humus soils of the prairie, and 

 less deeply in soils of heavier texture. When sown 

 late in the season and the weather has turned dry, :t 

 may also be well to close up some of the drill tubes, 

 lest there should be too many plants for the moisture. 

 The number of these can, of course, be reduced by 

 running over the crop with the harrow, with no other 

 cost than that of harrowing, and no other waste than 

 that of a portion of the seed. This mode of sowing 

 the sorghum would be especially applicable to semi- 

 arid regions, where the rainfall in summer is unreli- 

 able and ordinarily insufficient to perfect a crop. The 



