Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1901-02-02
SORGHUM FOR STOCK FOOD.
is Value as q Summer and Winter
Forage.

Mr., Waldo r. Brown, prominent
farmer of Ohio, has been growing sor-
ghum for summer and winter feed for
all kinds Of stock, for nine or ten years,
and he considers II the best and most
profitable food stuff that the farm can
produce. particularly in dry seasons,
when other forage fails, In a recent
issue OF the Louisville Home and Farm.
Mr., Brown says;
| grew sorghum for several years,
first az a summer food TO be used In
case OF drouth then as there was a
large demand for seed I began growing
1t for the seed and supposed that the
sweet stalks would be Of no value UNI
less ! had stock enough To eat them
soon after they were cut; but In the fall
of 1898. when | was saving the seed, /
received letter from friend in Kan
sas telling me that the large sweet
canes could be kept In the barn and fed
through the winter to all kinds OF stock,
We had that year one and one-half
acres which probably produced from If
teen TO twenty tons of cane. and | ex-
perimented enough in feeding 1t 10 find
out that ii was Of great value. II sours
TO some extent In the NOW, but If the
blades are allowed to cure before II is
hauled in II never molds or heats, and
all stock eat II even when sour, and |
have never seen any III effects in the
way Of producing scours or any other
trouble.
The next year | had a much larger
quantity Of il and while | should never
have thought Of feeding il TO horses /
found that my hired man had been
feeding 1t to them for several days, and
as we saw no III effects from 1t we con-
tinued feeding II all winter, using the
last Of II in March. ! consider it es-
pecially good for hogs, as they require
some bulky food to keep them in good
health, and this seems TO nh the bill,
and at less cost than anything else |
have ever grown. Another good thing
about II Is that as they eat the pith
they shred the outer stalk or shell as
fine as wheat straw and make Of 1t
bed that wears longer and Is much
freer Of dust than any bed OF straw.
CURING SORGHUM HAY.
This year we cut our sorghum for
seed with a Mccormick corn harvester,
binding 1t into small bundles. We left
II to lie on the ground for week or
ten days to cure, and as we cut the seed
Off which we did with stem about
foot long, we laid IL on about one fourth
Of the bundles. and as quick as the
blades were dry we shocked the remain
der This precaution is necessary in
curing the seed, as If Il IL laid fiat on
the ground and heavy rains fall some
Of II will sprout and It will not dry out,
but have succeeded in curing seed per-
fectly with no loss in the wettest sea-
sons by laying the heads on the cane
in this way, as the rain at once drains
out OF Ii, and with the sun and wind 1t
soon dires perfectly,
When we grow It for hay. as many
farmers now do, We SOW two bushels to
the acre, which makes II grow fine, so
that It can be handled almost as easily
as hay, as the stalks rarely grow larger
than a lead pencil, II makes little or no
seed when sOwn this thick. but does
form small heads and II produces a
very heavy crop. a field Of II In my i'm
mediate neighborhood this season
made seven tons cured 20 the
acre This Of course Is cured
and can be stored in large bulk
In the barn and handled with horse
fork. The large cane we pack In straight
I'm the NOV just as closely as possible,
and It Is so heavy that the space that
is required for a ton Of corn fodder will |
hold three or four tons Of II.