24 
COLORADO EXPERIMENT STATION 
two hours the second day and so on. Sorghum makes a fair pasture 
for hogs during the summer. A dairy cow fed all the ripe sorghum 
hay she will eat, and no other feed, will soon go dry. It is a fair 
dairy feed when supplemented by other fodders. 
Kafir corn, the surest dry land grain crop in Kansas and Nebraska, 
does not mature anywhere on the Plains of Colorado except in Baca 
county. The high altitude makes the nights too cool and the seasons 
too short for kafir corn as a grain crop. It is planted for forage the 
same as sorghum. 
Dwarf Milo Maize has the same habits and characteristics as 
kafir corn, but will ripen in'a shorter season, and is probably the 
surest grain crop for the dry lands of eastern Colorado. It should 
be tried by every farmer, as it will probably fill the same place in dry 
land farming that corn does in the corn belt. 
On ground well filled with moisture it may be planted with a 
grain drill in rows thirty-two inches apart, dropping single seeds four 
to six inches apart in the row. In dryer land it may be listed after 
the ground becomes warm, from May loth to June 15th, dropping 
single seeds the same distance as above. The drill and the lister 
should be followed with a press wheel to pack the soil over the seed. 
Milo maize is a sorghum without sugar, the strength of the plant 
going to produce seed. 
The seed should be kept in the head until just before planting. 
Threshed seed stored in bins or in sacks, even when kept dry for a year, 
is likely in a few damp days to become sufficiently heated to badly 
injure its germinating power. Where* not over forty acres are to be 
planted, the heads may be held on a sloping board in a wash tub and 
the seeds scratched off with a common curry comb. The ripest and 
the most vigorous seeds will shell off first, and when half the seeds 
have been rubbed from a head, it may be thrown aside and fed to 
stock. With this method, only the best seed is secured. It should 
be cleaned free from stems and chaff before planting. 
Milo maize should be given frequent shallow cultivation, the same 
as corn. When ripe is should be cut and shocked like corn. Th’^ 
may be done either by hand, with a corn sled or with a corn bindc* 
In winter the fodder with the heads may be fed to cattle and horses 
and the scattering grain picked up by either hens or hogs. Fattening 
hogs do better when the grain is threshed and fed to them either 
soaked or ground. Work horses fed milo maize can do as much 
heavy work in the spring and summer as they can on corn. It is 
best to top the fodder and feed the grain to work horses in the head. 
When eating milo maize in the head, the little stems that hold the 
seeds compel the horse to eat slowly and chew the grain well. When 
threshed grain is fed, the horse is likely to bolt his feed. 
One hundred pounds of Milo Maize have a feeding value equal 
to ninety pounds of com, and a fair yield is forty bushels an acre, 
equal in feeding value to thirty-six bushels of corn. The objection 
