Show SORGHUM AS A SOILING CROP I think I wrote something last year about my experience with sorghum another an-other years experience with it proves that I did not overestimate its value I have in addition to my own experience i this year that of the three dairymen who have milk routes in my village for at my solicitation each of themsowed more or less of it I have seen all of them within a week or two past and asked them if they found the crop as valuable as I had i represented it ana they were all hearty tin their praise of it and said they did not see how they could have gone through the season without it It not only pro iduces a very large amount of food to the acre but when mature It Is one of the lest milkproducing foods I have any ex iperience withIn with-In 1S3J I drilled in a quarter of an acre on June 17 putting it In with the wheat drill and using all the hoes mowing at the rate of one bushel of seed to the acre We had timely rains for one month hut after the 17th day of July we had fifty micron days without rain At the time the last shower fell the plants were six Inches In-ches high and one month later on the liest land it stood six feet high We began be-gan feeding from it the 1st of September and fed three cows from it tor two months and we found that a square rod of It yielded 240 pounds This fed three cows two days giving each of them forty pounds a clay Early in October wa had in half acre of sweet corn fodder to feed Lwhich lasted cur cows about three weeks iand b > this time the frost had killed the blades i on the sorghum Vie cut It with fa mowing machine and left it on the fTTDund drawing it in ass wanted enough for two days Teed at once The last of it was not fed until late la November by which time it had aired out so that I think It could have been kept for winter fesd From first to last the cows ate it clean and I do not think ten pounds to the ton were wasted f This year I tried the plan of sowing iwith every alternate drill hoe stepped making j trio rows sixteen inches apart but I did not like it as well as last years plan as it grew too course In fact on the best land we cut a twohors botch of cane land tool it to the mill and had sugar I made from it I believe that I shall try two bueheUs of seed to the acre next year ofla part ot my plot as I do not want the canes to grow more than a halfinch in diameter My nearest neighbor this year tried scattering It very thick 5n row so far Apart that he can use a i i narrow cultivator between tnem some thinp over two feet and he thinks this the better way When sown very thick over all the land there is danger of it lodging If heavy wind and rain comes together to-gether and if it lodges easily it does not develop the nacharlne element and Is not so good fqod I was pleased to find that rain did not injure it at all while curing 1 for being coarse the rain runs through l It and it dries out quickly Every man who keeps cows should put In a trial plot of this next year as I am satisfied that no other plant I nave any knowledge of will endure drouth as woll j or yield as much feed to a square acr Theblnckteeded cane and the amber are more likelv to fall down than the orange and Liberian varieties and I wjuld advise ad-vise that these strong growing kinds bo sown for this nurpose I woiud recommend recom-mend sowing abotit June L on a clean melonseed bed As seed usually costs nearly sit per bushel every farmer who expects to grow it In the future should plant a plot thin enough to mature seed nml grow his own seed supply each year I would plan for growing seed In rows I three feet apart with hills two feet apart and leave six or eight stalks to the hill Waldo F Brown 1 |