122 FARM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



seasons mucli more of it is needed for this purpose than 

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

 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 com 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 respedl is the 

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

 States, but which is gradually working its way north- 

 ward. MiUet possesses a distindt advantage over cow- 

 peas for occupying this niche, particularly in the 

 Northwest, because of its greater produdliveness in 

 dry seasons. 



One other fadt connected with the value of millet 

 haj' remains to be stated. Although it has been fed 

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

 quarter of a centurj' 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 " miUet 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 fadl that millet cul- 

 ture is much more general in that sedlion 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. 



