SUDAN GRASS AND RELATED PLANTS. 



Pilot Point, Tex., in the same year. None of these later importations 

 had any appreciable effect on the spread of Sudan grass in the United 

 States, because practically all of the seed distributed by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture to State agricultural experiment 

 stations in 1912 and to farmers in 1913 originated in the importation 

 of 1909 grown in the increase plats at the Chillicothe (Tex.) Field Sta- 

 tion in that and the following years (fig. 2). The Texas Agricultural 

 Experiment Station 

 obtained a consider- 

 able quantity of the 

 seed from the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture 

 in 1913 and distrib-. 

 uted it to farmers in 

 the State, enthusias- 

 tically urging i ts 

 propagation. 



The success of the 

 Sudan grass was im- 

 mediate and phenom- 

 enal, and in order to 

 encourage its propa- 

 gation the Office of 

 Forage-Crop Investi- 

 gations has carried on 

 a great many testsin 

 cooperation with the 

 State agricultural ex- 

 periment stations. 

 It is the purpose of 

 this bulletin to de- 

 scribe the results of 

 these tests more fully 

 than was possible in 

 the former publica- 

 tion, Farmers' Bulle- 

 tin 1126, in order to 

 establish definitely the status of Sudan grass in different sections 

 of the United States and to furnish a more complete basis for the 

 recommendations given in the bulletin mentioned. Other grass sor- 

 ghums closely related to Sudan grass are considered also and their 

 probable value indicated. 



DESCRIPTION AND BOTANICAL RELATIONSHIPS. 



Sudan grass is an annual hay plant belonging to the sorghum 

 family, with slender stems 4 to 6 feet high, numerous, rather soft 

 leaves, a loose, open panicle, numerous tillers, only occasional 



Fig.2. — The first row of Sudan grass grown in the United States. Pho- 

 tographed at the Chillicothe (Tex.) Field Station, July 17, 1909. 



