60 FORAGE CROPS. 



on a subsoil of somewhat porous clay. But since 

 these sorghums are all possessed of much power 

 to gather food under dry conditions, they will grow 

 better relatively on sandy bottoms than corn. A 

 chief difficulty to be overcome in many of the soils of 

 the south is a want of fertility, hence it is oftentimes 

 necessary in some way to fertilize them in the Gulf 

 and Atlantic states of that region, in order to get 

 good crops. But the black soils of many of the river 

 bottoms, of the prairies west of the Mississippi, and 

 the gray soils of the southwestern valleys being rich 

 in food constituents, are admirably adapted to 

 growing these crops when sufficiently supplied with 

 water, and without the necessity of adding fertility 

 in the meantime. 



Preparing the Soil. — When preparing the soil 

 for these crops, much will depend on the attendant 

 conditions. In the Gulf states, where moisture is 

 much more abundant than in trans-Mississippi areas, 

 the land may be plowed in the spring. Of course 

 where a green crop grown through the winter was to 

 be turned under, of necessity it would have to be 

 turned under in the spring. In afeas more dry, as, 

 for instance, western Kansas and Oklahoma, it would 

 be better to plow the land in the autumn where the 

 same could be done, and to harrow it betimes in the 

 spring until the season had arrived for planting the 

 sorghum. Where irrigation is practiced, of course 

 the farmer may plow the land at that season that will 

 best suit his convenience and the end that he has 

 in view. 



When a green crop is turned under in the spring 

 the land should be rolled as soon as possible there- 

 after to hinder surface evaporation. And where the 



