20 BULLETIN 1304, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Kafir and milo are grown primarily as grain crops in the region to 
which they are adapted. At the Akron station they matured a 
seed crop only occasionally, although the earliest varieties were used. 
It is more difficult to obtain a seasonable stand of them than it is 
other crops. This is undoubtedly due to low temperatures of the soil. 
Planting in lister furrows was much inferior to surface planting 
on either fall or spring plowing. This was due to a poorer stand and 
a slower start from listing. Between fall plowing and spring plowing 
there was little or no difference on the average. 
Kafir was the more valuable of the two crops. It matured as 
much grain as milo and gave an average yield of \% tons of dry 
forage per acre, whereas the average yield of milo was but little more 
than 1 Vi tons. Kafir is more leafy than milo and makes forage of 
better quality. Kafir seems to have possibilities of sharing with 
sorgo the role of being the important forage plant for this region, 
but the preference as shown by general practice is for the sorgo, a 
crop that matures. 
Sudan grass does well at Akron but has not been used in any 
of the rotations. It does not yield as heavily as sorgo, but the forage 
is of a different type. Its place depends very much upon the favor 
with which the individual grower views the haylike forage it makes. 
As an annual fall-pasture crop it is certain, produces well, and is 
relished by stock. Sudan grass for pasture should be seeded after 
corn planting is finished, preferably in narrow rows 30 inches apart, 
It should be cultivated once to give the plants a start over the weeds. 
It should furnish pasture from one month after seeding until frost. 
Sudan grass can be highly recommended as a fall pasture for hogs. 
Alfalfa and bromegrass each appear in 6-year rotations. The sod 
crops occupy the land for three years, including the year of seeding, 
and are followed by oats, corn, and wheat. These rotations furnish 
data on the possibility of obtaining a stand and establishing a sod 
each year and are long enough to indicate the relative values of 
the two crops and their effects on succeeding crops. From the 
results it seems that the sod crops are not adapted to snort or definite- 
term rotations. More or less difficulty has been experienced in 
obtaining stands, particularly in dry seasons. After the sod was 
broken up, the yields of the crops that immediately followed were 
below those on land that had not been in sod. 
Alfalfa and bromegrass are not satisfactorily productive as hay 
crops, but alfalfa is the more valuable of the two and is to be recom- 
mended as the best sod crop at present available. It does best 
on land that is subirrigated or that receives run-off from adjoining 
fields. Many farms have favored locations where alfalfa can be 
grown successfully. An afalfa pasture is especially desirable in hog 
production. 
Perhaps the most generally followed and most successful practice 
in seeding dry-land alfalfa is to plow the ground in the spring about 
the time active weed growth starts and then treat it as bare fallow 
until about the 1st of August. By that time a large part of the weed 
seeds* will have germinated, been destroyed, and sufficient water 
will have been stored in the soil to encourage rapid growth of the 
alfalfa. Advantage is taken of favorable conditions to seed any 
time after about August 1. If the alfalfa is out of the ground by 
the middle or last of August there is little danger of its wmterkilling, 
and it is then in condition to make good growth the following year. 
