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. 
