140 



DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



use of the small grains for hay is limited practically to the area where 

 these crops produce grain successfully. Incidentally, their use for this pur- 

 pose is very much more extensive west of the Rocky Mountains than it is 

 east of the Rocky Mountains, and largely for the reason that the former 

 region has a winter rainfall and the latter a summer rainfall. 



Millets — The millets represent a group of plants which were primarily 

 developed for human food, In this country, however, they have been used 

 exclusively for forage. There are cultivated three distinct botanical species, 

 represented by the foxtail millets, the broomcorn millets, and the barnyard 

 millets. There are several other millets in addition to these, none of which 

 has as yet been found to be of any particular value in America. As regards 

 millets as a whole, it is a very striking fact that their utilization as forage 

 has for twenty years been gradually diminishing. In the humid areas this 

 is just as conspicuous as in the dry-land areas, where they are more and 

 more being replaced by the sorghums. There is no reason to believe that 

 their relative importance will ever become materially greater. 



Sorghums — The most striking advance in the line of agriculture with 

 dry-land crops during the past ten years has been with the sorghums. Ten 

 years ago I was impressed with the fact that for the southern portion of 

 the Great Plains Area the sorghums were practically certain to form the 

 basis of any permanent agriculture, and over a much wider area they were 

 important. In accordance with this belief we of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for the past ten years have been scouring all parts 

 of the world for sorghums, and in that time have secured many hundred 

 different lots from all parts of Africa where they are native, and from 

 Asia where they have long been grown. 



By far the great majority of these new importations have proved 

 inferior to those that we had, and their characteristics are of interest only 

 to the botanist and the agronomist. Among them, however, have been a 

 few which have materially helped to solve the problem of dry-land forage. 



Among these two are worthy here of particular mention; namely, fet- 

 eita, first secured in 1907 and first distributed in 1910; and Sudan grass, 

 first obtained in 1909 and first distributed in 1912. Doubt is still expressed 

 among agronomists as to whether feterita is any more drought-resistant 

 than milo and kafir. There seems to be no such doubt among farmers, as 

 in northern Texas feterita, now, four years after its introduction, is planted 

 in at least as great an acreage as milo. The data of 1913, which was a 

 peculiarly dry year, leave no doubt in my mind that the plant does possess 

 superior drought-resistance to any of the other grain-producing sorghums. 



Sudan grass, a still more recent introduction, has created a very great 

 interest. It is still too early to state whether Sudan grass possesses greater 

 drought-resistance than other sorghums, as comparisons are difficult, be- 

 cause Sudan stools whenever favorable conditions occur and thus may pro- 

 duce 2 to 5 cuttings. 



Inasmuch as Sudan grass is so entirely different in appearance and 

 use from the other sorghums, and inasmuch as it is a plant which previous 



