The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1899-06-16
KAFFIR CORN.
4 Wonderful Dry Weather PlNnt-A
Texas Farmers Experience.

4 Wonderful Dry Weather PlNnt-A
Texns Farmers Experience.
Kaffir corn is an excellent forage
plant and should be used by farmers
far more than it is. There are two
kinds, the White and Red Tor brown.
! prefer the White, but the Red will
perhaps. make a little larger yield on
rich land. The white variety can he
thrashed, cleaned and ground into meal
and makes good. healthful bread. 1t
must be borne in mind that kafiir il n
dry weather and dry land plant. 1t will
make a wonderful growth on wet. rich
bottom land, but is apt to mold in the
head and the seed to blast or the grain
not properly ripen and be hard to cure
when harvested, but on moderately
rich upland, where the climate is some
what dry, either kind will flourish. 1t
is a drought beaten, often making Il
fine crop of grain and fodder when corn
would he an entire failure. 1t is splen-
did feed for cattle, horses, sheep, hogs,
all kinds of ponltry except ducks and
geese, which cannot pick 1t mp we'll I'M
less mixed with bran or ground and
mixed with milk CT water. 1t can he
fed to cattle, grain and fodder all to-
= gether in the head. The heads can he
cut off and fed to hogs and poultry and
fodder given to horses. If you wish to
feed the grain TO horses, it is best to
thrash it and have it ground coarse Cor
cracked or soak in water until swollen.
In Texas it may be planted from
March to July, often making a good
crop planted on oats stubble. The land
should be well plowed and finely pull
verified before planting. If you have a
two horse corn planter, take your plate
which has the most holes. place it on
some flat. smooth surface, melt some
lead and fill the holes, smooth off the
lead SO it will work smooth in planter;
then take a small handsaw file, if you
have nothing better, place it in a brace,
secure plate or have some II hold it
while you drill a hole in center Of lead.
Don't make it too large at first. Try
with seed until You see it will drop re-
quired amount Of seed, then put seed in
your planter and drive, running planter
as shallow as will cover the seed, Il il
necessary to have the seed clean and
free from pieces OF the head. Then ii
You live among the stumps aud plant
and farm the old way You can prepare
land as above and take off shovel and
mark off your land with stock, makinga
furrow about two inches deep and three
to four feet apart, drill seed by hand,
being careful not to drop too much
seed; then cover with a light drag or
harrow.
When two or three inches high, har-
row it well. Then in a week cultivate
with small shovels next to the row with
tivate you can use larger shovels with
tenders or without them, as you choose,
bearing in mind the object is to keep
soil loose and grass killed until the corn
il about waist high; then it will take
care of itself. Don't ridge it up much
unless your land is wet. If you do not
wish to cultivate and cut and shock the
crop and wish to harvest with a now
er. plant with planter as directed above;
then straddle your rows and double
plant it, and when grain is in dough
state cut and cure well. Directions
above given apply TO sorghum also, l
have raised several crops in this way in
the west and some in Texas and have
generally had a good crop Of it, orr
greatest difficulty here in eastern Texas
being TO get it cured without molding.
l have given instructions which appear
best from my w experience, hoping
it may be a help to some one, says a
writer in Texas Farm and Ranch.