574 



SOILING 



SORGHUM 



Fig. 807. Rack for sheep-feeding. 

 (See also Figs. 186 and 187, Vol. I.) 



and by feeding silage and roots in winter the con- 

 ditions of both summer and winter feeding are such 

 as are most conducive to a large and profitable 

 dairy production. 



Care of stock under soiling. 



Cleanliness in the stable and the grooming of 

 the cattle are important factors in soiling. When 



in pasture the hair 

 of the stock is kept 

 clean through rain 

 and wind, but when 

 confined the waste 

 thrown off by the 

 skin must be re- 

 moved by currying 

 in order that the 

 skin secretion of 

 the animals be not 

 interfered with, 

 and that they may 

 thrive under the rather artificial conditions under 

 which they are kept, with the incidental heavy 

 system of feeding and production. 



Literature. 



Quincy, Essays on the Soiling of Cattle, New 

 York (out of print) ; Shaw, Soiling Crops and the 

 Silo, New York (1904) ; Peer, Soiling Crops and 

 Ensilage, New York (1900) ; Nielsen, Ueber Som- 

 mer-stallfutterung, Bremen (1880). Experiment 

 Station publications : Soiling crops for cows : 

 Storr's (Conn.), Bulletin No. 9, Reports 1891, 1895 ; 

 Iowa, Bulletins Nos. 15, 19, 23, 27; Kansas, Bulletin 

 No. 125 ; Maryland, Bulletin No. 98 ; Massachusetts, 

 Reports 1887-1891, 1893; Mississippi, Bulletin No. 

 95; New Jersey, Reports, 1897-1904, Bulletins Nos. 

 122, 158 ; Pennsylvania, Reports 1889, 1904, 1905, 

 Bulletins Nos. 65, 75 ; Wisconsin, Report 1885, Bul- 

 letin No. 103; Ontario (Guelph), Report 1890. 

 Soiling crops for steers : Massachusetts, Report 

 1893; Utah, Bulletin No. 15. Soiling crops for 

 sheep : Utah, Bulletin No. 15, Report 1892 ; Wis- 

 consin, Report No. 7. Soiling crops for swine : 

 Michigan, Bulletin No. 223 ; Oregon, Bulletin No. 

 80. Fig. 807 from Farm Buildings, Sanders Pub. Co. 



SORGHUM. Andropogon Sorghum, Brot., or Sor- 

 ghum vulgare, Pers. Graminece. Figs. 808-814. 



By Carleton R. Ball. 



Agriculturally the term sorghum is commonly 

 restricted to the sweet or saccharine varieties.' 

 Botanically the, species, Andropogon Sorghum, is 

 held to include all groups of cultivated sorghum, 

 such as the broom-corns, sweet sorghums, kafirs and 

 durras. All other specific names which have been 

 applied to cultivated sorghums are regarded as syn- 

 onyms. A. Sorghum is not certainly known in a wild 

 state, and all the cultivated forms referred col- 



' For this reason the methods of culture and handling 

 given by Mr. Warburton, in the succeeding article, are for 

 the sweet sorghums only. For the methods applicable to 

 the other groups, see Broom-corn and Kafir and Durra, 

 respectively. 



lectively to this species are thought to have been 

 derived from the wild A. Halepensis, Brot. (Pigs. 518, 

 673). This species, well known in the southern 

 states as Johnson-grass, is widely distributed in trop- 

 ical and subtropical regions. In Africa and Asia it 

 presents a number of striking forms varying from 

 each other in the same directions as do the chief 

 groups of cultivated forms. A few of the cultivated 

 forms of India are said to be directly traceable to 

 the wild A. Halepensis. The differences usually cited 

 between the two species are the slender habit, lax 

 open panicle and stout, jointed, perennial rootstocks 

 of A. Halepensis. However, in rich soil A. Halepensis 

 is often more robust than some forms of A. Sorghum, 

 as for example, certain kaoliangs from China or 

 some forms of Amber sorghum in this country. 

 The lax, open panicle is also characteristic of 

 Amber sorghum, of some kaoliangs and of some 

 varieties of African origin, as Collier. The stout 

 rootstocks are not possessed by any cultivated 

 variety of sorghum so far as known, though our 

 annual varieties not infrequently become perennial 

 under favorable climatic conditions. Another sepa- 

 rating character, emphasized by Hackel, is the 

 jointed pedicel of the spikelet in the wild species 

 and the continuous pedicel in the cultivated species. 

 However, he states that a cultivated form, refer- 

 able to A. Sorghum in other characters, was found 

 to have the jointed pedicels of A. Halepensis, thus 

 breaking down the last distinction separating the 

 two so-called species. 



Cultivated sorghum is known to have originated 

 in the tropical or subtropical regions of the Old 

 World and to have been many centuries in cultiva- 

 tion for human food. Prom the abundance and 

 diversity of its forms and their very extensive 

 cultivation and use, tropical Africa is generally 

 considered the birthplace of the species. For the 

 same reasons it may be held to be indigenous to 

 India also. In either case, it was probably culti- 

 vated in the Orient long before the beginning of 

 the Christian era. 



Botanical description. 



Annual grasses, 3-15 feet in height, with stout, 

 erect, jointed stems, 4-2^ inches in diameter, 

 stooling little or much from the base, simple above 

 or producing a single, simple, fruiting branch from 

 each of 1-5 upper nodes, except the uppermost; 

 nodes 7-20 in the forms cultivated in this country; 

 internodes normally longer than or about equaling 

 the sheaths, or sometimes shorter, the sheaths then 

 overlapping, as in kafirs; leaves in two opposite 

 ranks (distichous), large, 1-5 inches in width, 

 1-3^ feet in length, acute at the apex, broadest 

 about the middle, somewhat to considerably 

 narrowed at the base or broad and more or less 

 clasping, depending much on vigor of growth. 

 Peduncles slender or stout, 10-36 inches long, 

 erect or recurved ("goosenecked"). Seed-head a 

 panicle, 5-28 inches in length, of widely different 

 color and shape in different cultivated varieties: a 

 corymb or umbel in form, as in broom-corns, 

 Collier sorghum, and the like ; a true panicle in 

 Amber sorghum, in Shallu and others; a close and 



