SUDAN GEASS AND RELATED PLANTS. 



25 



must be either a money crop or a soil improver. In certain Southern 

 States where good prices are to be obtained for hay, Sudan grass 

 may be used like the corn or wheat of our Northern States as one of 

 the money crops, but in other States it is not likely to supplant the 

 well-known plants of 

 our common rota- 

 tions. It probably 

 exhausts the fertility 

 of the soil as rapidly 

 as corn y or cotton. 

 Sorghums are popu- 

 larly supposed to be 

 "hard on the soil," 

 and this reputed 

 deleterious effect on 

 fertility is frequently 

 mentioned by farm- 

 ers in the timothy 

 and red clover region 

 as their reason for 

 not growing Sudan 

 grass. 



A 4-year rotation 

 for the cotton belt 

 which has been sug- 

 gested by the Texas 

 Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station (29, 

 p. 9) is, for the first 

 and second years, 

 cotton; third year, 

 corn or grain sor- 

 ghum, with cowpeas 

 interplanted, to be 

 pastured or plowed 

 under for green ma- 

 nure ; fourth year, Su- 

 dangrass. Insucha 

 rotation the grain 

 sorghums should be 

 used only in those regions where they are not subject to attacks of the 

 sorghum midge. It is quite likely that such a rotation would require 

 the application of some fertilizer, preferably barnyard manure, at 

 least once in four years, since the small quantity of humus added by 

 the legume would hardly be sufficient to maintain fertility. 

 53321°— 21— Bull. 981 4 



Fig. 15.- 



-Growth of Sudan grass (at left) compared with that of mil- 

 let, 48 days from planting. 



