SUDAN GRASS AND RELATED PLANTS. 



37 



two or three days, for the leaves dry very rapidly. It may then be 

 cured in windrows or cocks until the stems are dry and it becomes safe 

 to bale or stack the hay. On account of the slow drying of the stems, 

 Sudan grass hay should rarely be stacked, baled, or piled in a haymow 

 until two weeks after cutting. At the Fort Hays Experiment Sta- 

 tion, Hays, Kans., Sudan grass 5 to 6 feet high was cut in July, 1914. 

 After three or four good drying days the hay looked cured, and about 

 30 tons of it were stacked in a large rick. Small samples taken at 

 stacking time lost 30 per cent of their weight upon further air drying. 

 When the stack was fed out, much hay in the center showed injury 

 from heating. In September, 1914, at the same station, some 

 apparently cured hay was placed in a barn on a damp day. A week 



Fig. 20.— Cutting Sudan grass seeded in rows 40 inches apart at Dalhart, Tex. 



later this Sudan grass was found to be heating. The temperature 

 1 foot below the surface was 128° to 130° F., though there were but 

 a few tons of hay in the center of a large well-ventilated haymow. 



In humid regions, a proportionately longer time is required for 

 curing. The leaves do not shatter easily, however, and a few rains 

 do not materially injure the quality of the hay. The crop should 

 be removed from the field as soon as safe, in order to avoid injuring 

 the next cutting, or so that the aftermath may be pastured. 



SUDAN GRASS AND LEGUME MIXTURES. 



The growing of legumes in mixtures with nonlegumes is a very old 



practice in agriculture. In the United States this practice of mixed 



. seedings is not common except with hay crops, because the harvesting 



is done by machinery, and unless the two crops mature at the same 



