122 FARM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



seasons much more of it is needed for this purpose than 

 in others, and this accounts, in part, for the fluctua- 

 tions in the area of millet grown from year to year. 

 Common millet and Hungarian grass at least may be 

 sown at the North after it is too late to replant corn or 

 other standard forage crops, and yet make a good crop 

 of hay in time for a succeeding crop of winter grain. 

 The only crop which rivals millet in this respect is the 

 cow-pea, a crop not yet widely known in the Northern 

 States, but which is gradually working its way north- 

 ward. Millet possesses a distinct advantage over cow- 

 peas for occupying this niche, particularly in the 

 Northwest, because of its greater productiveness in 

 dry seasons. 



One other fact connected with the value of millet 

 hay remains to be stated. Although it has been fed 

 freely to all kinds of stock on thousands of farms for a 

 quarter of a century with nothing but favorable re- 

 sults, there have always been persistent rumors that it 

 may be injurious to horses. In some localities a pecul- 

 iar ailment to horses has been called " millet disease," 

 from the belief that it is caused by feeding millet hay. 

 Like sorghum poisoning, this ailment is most com- 

 monly met with along the western border of the humid 

 region, but this may be due to the fact that millet cul- 

 ture is much more general in that section than else- 

 where (see Fig. 20). The symptoms of the disease 

 are disturbances of the kidneys, causing increase in 

 the flow of urine and lameness of the joints. Prof. 

 T. D. Hinebauch, of the North Dakota station, in 

 Bulletin 26 of that station, reports some interesting re- 

 sults in experiments inaugurated to test this point. 



