In other groups. The stalks are fine and leaves more

abundant than in other kinds. The seed is small, with

distinct red or dark brown color" and borne in loose pani-

cles. Amber, Orange, and Sumac are the most exten-

sively-grown varieties ; Red Amber, Planter's Friend, and

Gooseneck are also worthy of mention.

Those varieties used for grain have little, if any, sweet

juice in the pith, and they are coarser than the sac-

charine type. Shorter nodes, fewer leaves, larger kernels,

and more clear-cut sheathing characterize grain sorghums.

The heads are generally compact and white, yellow, or

dark brown. Kafir, milo, feterita, durra, shalju^ and

kowliang are most common varieties. Milo and kowliang

Sorghums and Millets 323

mature earlier than kafir — in about. ninety to one hun-

dred days. Not only are the kernels used for grain^ but

the fodder is used to some extent for forage.

Broom-corn is distinguished by the long brush on which

small seed is borne sparsely. Since this type is grown

for whisk, the length and evenness of the pedicels are

primarily important. Standard broom-corn, which is

generally about twelve feet tall, bears brush from eighteen

to thirty inches long. A shorter brush from twelve to

eighteen inches in length is produced. on a smaller plant

which is known as dwarf broom-corn because of being

only four to six feet in height.

366. Distribution and adaptation. ВЂ” As might be

expected from a plant of tropical origin, sorghum is nat-

urally adapted to a region of warmth and abundant sun-

shine. By choice of varieties or from having been grown

for centuries in arid regions, it has come to prefer a dry

atmosphere. Greatest yields are, of course, obtained

where moderate moisture is available, but it can be suc-

cessfully produced in comparatively dry districts. It is

rather drouth-resistant in sections similar to South Africa

and the Great Plains section of the United States. Piper ^

says, " No degree of summer heat seems too intense for

the sorghums, but they are injured both in spring and in

fall by light frosts."

Grain-sorghum varieties mature in such short grow-

ing-seasons that they are able to mature in South Dakota

and southward. Some forage varieties do well in Minne-

sota and Ontario. Rapid growth coupled with drouth

resistance enables this crop to produce more economical

grain and forage than corn on the Great Plains where

rainfall is less than twenty-five inches, though corn has

not been replaced to any marked extent where the annual

1 Forage Plants, p. 262.

324 The Principles of Agronomy

precipitation exceeds this. The best area for sorghum

in America begins in about the same longitude as does

that of dry-farm wheat. The considerable resistance to

alkali that is manifested by sorghums as a class should

also hasten the spread of the crop in arid regions.

Nearly all arid regions of the Old World grow sorghum,

with Egypt, South Africa, Australia, India, and northern

China leading in total production. The order of impor-

tance cannot be ascertained, since statistics are unavail-

able partly because much of the crop which is used for

forage is fed without being measured. In the United

States, moreover, statistics are unreliable when it comes

to details. Kansas is far in the lead, producing perhaps

half the entire crop. Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas,

Colorado, and California grow small acreages. These

states and Utah — perhaps some others — have large

tracts of new land that could be made to produce sor-

ghum economically. In some cultivated sections, other

crops might be replaced profitably. ^ Many trials by

farmers and Experiment Stations must precede a definite

statement as to where the crop will succeed or fail.

Roughly, however, vast promise lies in the undeveloped

possibilities of sorghums in dry regions west of the ninety-

eighth meridian. This, of course, implies that selected

varieties be tested as was suggested for corn. That some

tropical sorghmns have required more than seven months

to mature when grown in Florida shows how essential

the use of adapted varieties is to successful production.

Soils should be well-drained and porous to permit root

penetration. Sorghums have a reputation for being

" hard on the land " by causing the crop that follows to

yield lightly. Some persons think this is due to the power

of the plant to dry the soil considerably below the wilt-

ing point of other crops. Careful preparation of the

Sorghums and Millets 325

seed-bed lessens the injury, which may be due to an

exhaustion of readily-available plant-food. Poor soils,

too, are often used to grow the sorghum crop, not that

the plant prefers naturally the difficult soils and dry

climates, but that it is hardy under adverse conditions.

367. Preparation of seed-bed and seeding. — In pre-

paring the seed-bed, the same precautions are taken as

for corn except that soil ought to be made finer. The

best time for planting is after all danger of frost has passed

and the soil is warm.

Grain crops are always drUled in rows from eighteen

to forty-eight inches apart. More often corn-planters

are used with special plates or with holes partly stopped

to govern the rate of seeding. Seed is dropped from six

to ten inches apart in the row. From three to five pounds

will plant an acre at this rate.

Forage crops are planted either in rows or broadcasted

at the rate of from .fifteen to forty pounds an acre. Under

most favorable conditions two bushels are planted.

Dwarf broom-corn is planted tjhree feet between rows

and two inches apart in the row, while standard varieties

do better in rows three feet six inches apart with seed

at three-inch intervals in the row. Uniformity of stand

gives uniformity of brush, which is highly desirable since

both too coarse and too fine whisks are less valuable than

the normal.

368. Treatment during growth. — Because seedlings

are sensitive to soil or moisture, weeds injure them

severely, and since they are tougher to mechanical con-

tact than corn, more frequent and later cultivation may

be given, and is, indeed, required. Intertillage with

one-row cultivators keeps down weeds and mulches the

soil untU flowers appear. Listing is also practiced in some

cases.

326 The Prindphs of Agronomy

369. Harvesting. — When fully mature, the grain crop

is cut either with a corn-binder, with a sled-cutter, or by

hand. Thorough drying before threshing prevents heat-

ing of the grain. Curing is most easily accomplished in

shocks which are built wide at the bottom to keep the

heavy-headed grain from falling over. The bundles are

either run through thresher or the heads run in and the

stover withdrawn and shocked or stacked until used for

rough feed. Occasionally the farmer heads the plants —

particularly dwarf strains — by hand or machinery and

threshes only the heads. The stalks are pastured or

harvested separately.

Yields as high as seventy bushels an acre occur, though

twenty is more common and forty is good. In years so

dry that corn fails, sorghum has given twelve to twenty-

bushel yields.

• Forage is cut green, silage in the soft dough, and fodder

just at bloom. Corn-binders cut large areas more cheaply

than hand-labor. Hay is made sometimes by broad-

casting thick stands, cutting with a mower, and curing

as grass. In this case the stems ought not to exceed the

thickness of a pencil and should be cut before blooming.

Acre-yields varying from ten to forty tons of green

feed have been reported. Fifteen to twenty tons are

taken off the land frequently. In cured hay or dried

fodder, the returns net from two to eight tons in from one

to six cuttings depending on the season and moisture

available.

The whisk of dwarf broom-corn is pulled from the stem

at the upper node and removed from the field at once.

In standard varieties, the stems are cut partly through

two feet or so above ground and two rows bent across

each other making V-shaped platforms, or "tables,** of

crossed stalks. The "brush,** as the whisk is called, is

Sorghurrts and Millets 327

now cut off and placed on the " tables " to dry. After

being cured in sheds, it is made into bales of 300 or

400 pounds. Sometimes seed is allowed to ripen, but

this lessens the value of the whisk more than it increases

the value of the grain. In both cases threshers remove

the seed from the brush, which is thrust against the cylin-

der and then withdrawn. From two hundred to seven

himdred pounds of cured brush represent ordinary returns

from an acre.

When grown for sirup, sweet sorghimi matures in the

field. While still standing the leaves are stripped off;

heavy rollers press the juice from the culms. Heat and

settling clarify the juice of impurities. Warming in

shallow pans concentrates the sirup to the desired con-

sistency of 30 per cent moisture. About half or two-

thirds of the juice presses out in a good mill, a ton yield-

ing from 700 to 1200 poimds of juice which concentrates

from ten to thirty gallons of sirup. From five to fifteen

tons of stems grow on an acre.

360. Use. — Sorghum grain is used only for stock-

feed in America, though in Asia and Africa it is an im-

portant human food. The grain is starchy and hard.

Unless crushed, fed wet, or minted with other feeds, a part

of it escapes digestion. Eighty to ninety pounds of

com equal one hundred pounds of sorghum in feeding

value. If fed alone, the grain has a constipating effect,

which is relieved by the accompanying protein feed neces-

sary to balance the ration. Colored seed is sharply

bitter, due to tannin. Poultrymen prize the grain highly

for their fowls.

The dry stems and leaves of the sorghum make fair

roughage. As silage, sorghum neariy equals corn; as

hay it ranks about the same as oats, wheat, or bariey.

It is cut for hay with mowers or binders. Stock may pas^

328 The Principles of Agronomy

ture considerable quantities of feed from green fields,

since under favorable conditions it makes several growths

and suckers freely. One serious danger, however, besets

its use as pasture. After being stunted by excessive

heat and drouth, prussic acid, a virulent poison, sometimes

develops in the leaves or stems. This will kill stock in

a few minutes. Exactly what conditions cause poisoning

is not clear, but it seems that if the plant is kept growing,

there is no danger. The dried fodder does not injure stock.

Sirup manufacturing is not widely practiced. The

demand for whisk supplies for the manufacture of brooms

encourages broom-corn production. Illinois, Kansas,

Missouri, and New York produce 80 per cent of the whisk

crop.

361. Enemies. — Kernel smut attacks individual seeds.

Formalin seed treatment lessens the injury. Head smut

covers the whole head and has not been successfully

treated. Blight may kill the leaves. Selection of resist-

ant varieties can probably control it.

In Texas, the sorghmn midge does considerable dam-

age to the heads. Corn ear-worms, fall army-worms,

chinch-bugs, and sorghum aphids do some damage.

Wise cultivation will largely control insects and plant

diseases as well as weeds.

362. Storage and marketing. — The brush from broom-

corn is marketed in a number of grades at one to six cents

a pound depending on the length, uniformity, flexibility,

and color of the whisk. Careful drying, sweating, and

baling are essential in curing for quality, since the high

moisture content renders molding and discoloration

likely. Grain, fodder, and silage are handled as is corn,

but very little gets to market. It is primarily a local

crop. Not even the sirup, which is a farm delicacy and

not a market product, gets far away.

Sorghums and Millets 329

SUDAN-GRASS

363. Description. — Sudan-grass, an annual sorghum,

a native of Egypt, came to the United States in 1909, and

does well on the Great Plains from South Dakota to Texas.

Maturity is reached even in Canada. It stools abun-

dantly, grows from four to ten feet in height, has the

drouth-resistant qualities of the other sorghums, and has

done well under irrigation in Colorado and California.

It is grown only for hay or pasture. Sudan-grass resem-

bles Johnson-grass save that it has no rootstocks. The

stems are fine, leafy, and erect, producing from one to

five tons of fair hay that any stock may eat safely, though

the same troubles that occur with sorghum are possible

when the second growth is pastured.

364. Culture. — Best results are attained from sowing

after the ground is warm enough for corn or for grain

sorghums. Planting may be done either in rows or by

broadcasting. Three pounds will plant an acre in rows;

fifteen to twenty-five pounds, an acre when drilled or

broadcasted. Hay of the best quality is secured when

grain is cut in full bloom. Mowers and binders are

both used to cut the grass. Since seed yields up to 1500

pounds an acre, and since the seeds are small, the plant is

extremely prolific but is not a bad weed because it is only

an annual. Care should be taken to avoid planting

seed in which Johnson-grass is found. To prevent this,

the seed-plots must be clean.

MILLETS

The millets, like sorghum, are very important in India

and China for human food, but they have found no use

in America except for forage. Austria, Italy, and Balkan

330 The Principles of Agronomy

Europe use them extensively for forage. They grow well

in dry, hot districts with short seasons, sometimes matur-

ing in forty to fifty days. They do well wherever sor-

ghum pays, and will grow farther north, but they have

several faults which confine them to districts where sor-

ghums cannot mature sufficiently, and which cause them

to be used only as catch-crops when it is too late to start

more valuable plants. More than a million acres are

grown, but cultivation is diminishing rather than in-

creasing.

365. Relationship and description. — The millets in-

clude ten different species in five or more genera. The

most common valuable type is the foxtail millet (Setaria

italica). In this group are common, German, Italian, and

Hungarian varieties. Other types are broom-corn millet,

Japanese barnyard millet, and pearl millet. Foxtail

millet is closely related to the common weed, green

foxtail (Setaria viridis). It was cultivated in prehistoric

times. Chinese records mention it about 2700 B.C.

The plants are annual grasses, very leafy, growing from

one to four feet tall. The heads are from two to eight

inches long in rather compact spikes which in some

varieties are distinctly lobed. The seed is yellowish,

about one millimeter in diameter, with the hull boxed

around the grain. Numerous bristly hairs project out-

ward from the spike.

366. Culture and value. — From two to four pecks of

seed are sown to the acre, usually with drills. Row-

planting is used occasionally for seed production. The

slightest frosts kill millet; hence late planting pays.

Any time in June seems favorable.

Quality in the hay deteriorates rapidly after full bloom,

when the yield and quality are both greatest. For cattle,

millet hay is about equal to grass, but is inferior to clover

' Sorghums and Millets 331

and alfalfa. Horses suffer in several ways from contin-

uous feeding of millet hay. Action of the kidneys and

bowels increases ; joints swell and get lame ; bony texture

weakens. Wisdom suggests that cattle as well as horses

be fed mixed roughage rather than straight millet.

Seed crops yield from fifteen to fifty fifty-pound

bushels an acre. Just before maturity, binders cut the

seed crop, which cures in the shock. Ripe heads shatter

badly. Ordinary threshers are used to separate the seed

from the straw.

A smut attacks the seed, but it can be destroyed by the

formalin treatment that is used on seed wheat. Chinch-

bugs are fond of millet, which, for that reason, is often used

as a trap crop to be plowed under when the insects have

collected on the plants.

367. Other types. — Japanese ba^rnyard millet is

coarser than foxtail millet, has branched heads, and is

used for soiling, but does not cure readily for hay. It is

grown widely for food in China, India, and other parts of

Asia.

Broom-corn millet has a brush-like head and larger

seed than the common type. It grows as a cereal crop in

Russia and also to some extent for forage. The Dakotas

and Manitoba produce considerable, which is also used

mostly for forage.

Pearl millet, sometimes called penicillaria, is twice as

large as other millets, has a rather woody stem filled with

dry pith, and bears seed in a compact cylindrical head

from which it has been called cat-tail millet. It is rather

coarse and dry for hay. In the South, its immense

yields of green forage make it and teosinte, another annual

very similar to corn, popular for feed. As much as fifty

tons to the acre of green fodder has been cut in one season

from each of these crops.

332 The Principles of Agronomy

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

The Corn Crops, Montgomery, pp. 279-342.

Field Crops, Wilson and Warburton, pp. 25&-263, 336-347.

Cereals in America, T. F. Hunt, pp. 382-399.

Field Crop Production, G. Livingston, pp. 221-238.

Forage Plants, C. V. Piper, pp. 260-304.

Forage Crops, E. B. Voorhees, pp. 37-131.

Forage and Fiber Crops, T. F. Hunt, pp. 111-120.

Southern Field Crops, J. F. Duggar, pp. 231-247.

Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, Vol. II, pp. 384-388, 469-474,

574-582.

U. S. D. A. Farmers* Bulletins :

No. 101. Millets.

174. Broom Com.

288. Kafir Corn.

322. Milo.

448. Better Grain-sorghum Crops.

458. The Best Two Sweet Sorghums for Forage.

552. Kafir as a Grain Crop.

605. Sudan Grass.

CHAPTER XXVI

FIBERS AND MISCELLANEOUS CROPS

The world is so wide ; soils are so different ; climates

vary in so many respects; there are so many kinds of

plants with varying habits of growth that the plants

grown for the use of man and beast are almost without

number.

FIBERS

Both the plant and the animal kingdoms furnish fibers

which are used largely for clothing, carpets, rugs, ropes,

nets, cordage, and bags. Vegetable fibers consist almost

entirely of cellulose, while animal fibers have sufficient

nitrogen in them to give off, when burnt, an odor char-

acteristic not only of wool and silk, but of hair and flesh.

A white ash remains after the burning of vegetable fibers,

but animal fiber burns to a crisp char that usually curls.

Vegetable fibers may be woody, bast, or floral. The

wood and bast fibers are borne in the interior of the plant,

bast in the inner bark, and wood in the deeper tissues of

the fibro-vascular bundles. Bast fibers such as flax and

hemp, and floral fibers such as cotton are by far more

important for textiles than the wood fibers. Leaves also

yield some fiber, as in the case of sisal and manila hemp.

COTTON {Gossypium hirsutum)

368. History. — Cotton cloth is cheap and practically

all people wear some cotton. This has not always been

333

334 The Principles of Agronomy

the case. A century ago wool and silk were the common

textiles.

Cotton had been grown for centm'ies in China and for

a shorter period in India and Egypt, and being a native of

the New World, for an unknown period of time in Peru

and other parts of America. Not until the beginning of

the nineteenth century, however, did it count for much

as a world crop. Introduced into the Southern States, it

thrived and was cultivated on a small scale before the

Revolution. Washington and Jefferson grew it with the

help of slaves who separated the lint from the seed by

hand. When Eli Whitney's cotton-gin proved successful,

cotton-growing spread rapidly. It has supported most

of the people in the South, supplied a livelihood for

millions in northern factories, and helped to build an

inmiense foreign trade. On the other hand it was one of

the big factors in intensifying the misunderstanding that

led to the Civil War.

369. Relationships. — Hollyhock is the most common

plant that is closely related to cotton; the mallows are

also in the same family. In the same genus are five

species of cotton: (1) Upland, (2) Sea-island, (3)

Egyptian, (4) Peruvian, and (5) Bengal, or Indian. Of

these long- and short-fibered upland or long- and short-

staple cotton comprise most of the commercial fields in

America. Some Sea-island is grown, however, in the

tidewater regions, particularly in Georgia. The chief

difference in the species is length of fiber, which varies

from one-half inch in short-staple to two and one-half

inches in Sea-island, long-staple producing a fiber of

intermediate length.

Altogether there are several hundred varieties of cotton.

These are grouped into eight types or variety groups : (1)

Cluster, (2) Semi-cluster, (3) Rio Grande, (4) King, (5)

Fibers and Miscellaneous Crops 335

BigboU, (6) Long-limbed, (7) Intermediate, and (8) Long-

staple Upland. These names, in general, indicate growth

habits or growth regions. Jackson, Hawkins, Peterkin,

Layton, Toole, King, and Allen Long-staple are standard

varieties.

370. Description. — Cotton has a deep-rooting habit,

but also sends numerous horizontal branches in the upper

three inches of soil. The stem is solid, woody, consider-

ably branched, and from three to six feet long. The

leaves are broad, three-lobed, and palmately-veined,

while the flowers are usually white or yellowish contain-

ing a pistil with a divided stigma and a compact group

of stamens bearing waxy pollen. Though naturally

cross-fertilized by insects, the flowers are capable of self-

fertilization. Small stems arising from the main branches

or sub-branches bear the flowers and later the boll, which

is a heavy pod containing the lint and embedded seed.

Under a microscope, mature lint shows a definite twist-

ing, perhaps due to drying of the tubular fiber. This

twist roughens the surface of the lint strengthening the

grip one fiber gets on another when it is made into thread.

Each fiber, a single cell, is a product of the flower. It

surrounds the seed, which i3 about one-fourth inch in

diameter. A coat of oil that covers the lint must be re-

moved before cotton is dyed or before it is made into

absorbent cotton.

371. Adaptation. — Cotton will grow in most soils ;

clays and loams, moderately dry and well-drained, are

most favorable. Moderate moisture and frost-free

seasons from six to seven months in duration encourage

the best growth. Because these conditions exist in the

Southern States as nowhere else, it is this section that

produces most of the cotton of the world. Of twenty

million 500-pound bales, the United States produces 12

336 The Principles of Agronomy

million, India 4 million, Egypt 1.3 million. The other 7

million bales are the combined harvest of Brazil, Peru,

Mexico, Turkey, and China. Texas, Georgia, Mis-

sissippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma,

North Carolina, and Louisiana produce 96 per cent of

the American crop and rank in the order named. So

exclusively does Texas grow cotton that 40 per cent of

her improved land is devoted to this crop.

372. Culture. — It is a practice, common but unwise,

to grow cotton on a field several years in succession. The

stalks are broken and plowed under or burned. " Beds *'

are made by turning two furrows toward each other

every three to five feet, the spaces often remaining un-

broken until the first cultivation. Seed at the rate of

one-half to one bushel an acre is drilled into these beds

by a one-row planter after a shallow furrow is opened.

When the plants are well started, dirt is thrown away

from them and they are '* chopped out " until the plants

are left one or two feet apart in the row. From one to

five cultivations are given, generally shallow, to avoid

cutting the roots, which are abundant near the surface.

Much of the cultivation has been done with one-mule

plows and poor machinery, but recently two-row culti-