48 BULLETIN 1260, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
and in other sections where sorghums are grown. Sorgo hay and 
fodder are generally acknowledged to be of better quality or at least 
more palatable than the hay and fodder of grain sorghums, and 
recent feeding tests have shown that there is but little difference in 
the feeding value of the silages. None of the sorghums are reliable 
grain producers in the Northern Great Plains. For forage, corn, 
millet, and the small grains are preferable to sorghum in North 
Dakota and Montana, but the early varieties of sorgo make higher 
yields of fodder than the above crops in South Dakota and yield 
equally as high in northeastern Wyoming. 
SWEET-SORGHUM VARIETIES 
The Dakota Amber, an early dwarf strain of Black Amber devel- 
oped by A. C. Dillman (5), is the best variety discovered so far for 
North Dakota and Montana. It needs onlv 85 to 90 davs to mature 
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Fig. 12.— Dakota Amber sorgo at Hays, Kans., in 1919. Seeded May 29. Photographed August 27. 
and is a sure seed producer (fig. 12). In South Dakota and north- 
ern Nebraska Red Amber makes larger yields of fodder than Dakota 
Amber, but does not regularly produce germinable seed. The choice 
between these two varieties in this section, therefore, will depend on 
whether the farmer is willing to buy his seed for sowing purposes. 
Red Amber requires 90 to 100 days for maturity and is better 
suited to conditions a little farther south in Nebraska and northern 
Kansas. It has a good performance record at Hays, Kans., and was 
recommended at one time (7) as the best variety for western Kansas. 
In the last few years, however, Red Amber has shown marked sus- 
ceptibility to head smut and a slight tendency to lodge when the 
growth is heavy; because of these weaknesses the variety is losing 
favor. 
Black Amber (F. C. I. No. 7038) is a leafy early-maturing strain 
developed by selection at Hays, Kans. (Fig. 13.) In length of 
