66 BULLETIN" 1260. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGBICtJXTUBE. 
date gave the best results with Sumac and June 15 with Red Amber, 
when consideration is given to the weed-control problem and the 
quality of the forage as well as the yields. However, fairly satis- 
factory forage yields may be obtained by seeding either Red Amber 
or Sumac as late as July 1 on land that has been given good early 
preparation. 
EXPERIMENTS AT DALHART. TEX. 
Date-of -seeding experiments at Dalhart. Tex., were in progress for 
four years, 1918 to 1921, all relatively favorable seasons. As the 
experiments in 1918 were only preliminary, covering irregular dates 
from June 1 to July 9. data from definitely outlined experiments are 
available for only three years. In these three years seedings of Red 
Amber and Sumac were made every two weeks from May 1 to June 15. 
The results obtained are not conclusive: nevertheless, they are 
suggestive of several practical points that are worthy of consideration. 
The experiments were conducted on single tenth-acre plats except 
in 1921, when single 0. OS-acre plats were used. The preceding crop 
was sorghum or an altemate-row crop of sorghum and cowpeas. The 
plats were surface planted in 44-inch rows on late-spring plowing. 
In 1918 it was impossible to obtain a stand on the June 1 seeding, 
because of soil conditions; but stands were obtained on June 11, 
June 25, and July 9. Sumac did not mature on any of these seedings. 
but Red Amber matured a light seed crop from the sowings on the 
first two dates. A marked decline in forage yields was evident for 
both varieties with the progressively later seeding. This result 
suggested the need for testing earlier dates, so the work was begun on 
May 1 in the following seasons. The outstanding features of the 
early seeding dates from 1919 to 1921 were abundant moisture, cold 
soil, slow germination of the sorghum seed, and vigorous weed 
growth, which affected adversely the first three seedings each year. 
The average time required for the May 1 seedings to emerge was 23 
days: the May 15 seedings, 15 days: the June 1 seedings, 11 days: 
and the June 15 seedings, 7 days. The first two dates of Sumac and 
all the Red Amber matured in 1919, but the plants, which were 7 to 
9 feet tall, were badly lodged and tangled during storms of September 
15 to 20. In 1920 none of the Sumac matured, but all of the Red 
Amber ripened naturally. In 1921 the fall was rather hot and dry, 
hastening the maturity of both varieties and decreasing materially 
the yields of grain from the Sumac. 
The yields of fodder and grain and the average height of plants are 
shown in Table 17 for both varieties, but the average length of growing 
season is given for Red Amber only because Sumac failed so often to 
mature. 
These data for Dalhart suggest that it is possible to get fair yields 
of forage from either Red Amber or Sumac throughout the entire 
seeding period. May 1 to June 15, and probably as late as July 1. 
It seems, however, that nothing practical is gained by seeding before 
the soil is warm, and much trouble from weeds and uncertainty of 
stand- is avoided by deferring seedings for forage until June I or 
later. 
