Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-03-10
HANDLING the Sorghum Crop.

Handling the Sorghum Crop.
When planting for feed il was
thought the more stalks the more
feed. but the too thick planting
stunted the growth and too thin
planting brought about too many
sizes of canes and too many stages
of maturity when desiring to harvest
at a given time, preferably just prior
to frost if planted early enough, and
the crop was sufficiently mature. If
many suckers were thrown out we
waited; if not We let stand until We
feared hard frosts or hard winds.
We do not care so much Tor wind
now as we did, as we find the corn
binder will take it up in good shape
no ma ter how badly lodged. In us
ing the binder we cut in lands Of
about twenty-five rows. This entails
driving astride one row when start
ing the lands, MASKING it almost 10
the ground; turn back on this row,
and the binder will gather it up nice
". If the operator will faSten an old
cradle finger to the end of the binder
tongue in such way as to cause all
the stalks to be pushed to the left
side of the tongue as they pass under
the neck yoke scarcely any canes at
all will be run over by the wide driv-
ing wheel and mashed to the ground
so the machine cannot pick them up
on the return trip.
a.
constructed at present quite as COM
plete a machine for harvesting cane
as it could be made. 1t does not cut
low enough without causing addi
tional draft. Ii let down as low as
it can be drawn by the team the
frame will touch the ground where
the surface is uneven, and in turning
around the ends of the land the
ridges madesby cultivating the crop
are hard to pass over. When the
sorghum is grown in hills and the
binder used to harvest it the draft is
heavy at each hill, and is jerked sud-
denly forward to the next hill a
heavy jerk on the necks of the team
follows in stopping the forward inn
pact of the machine, and everything
is almost brought to a stop just as it
ought to be in good plntion. espe-
cially the knife, 50 that, after all is
done and said we think it better to
plant in rows just far enough apart
to allow use of binder and have the
stalks stand about fifteen or twenty
to the foot of row. OF, if soil is
strong. plant enough thicker to get
uniform canes and have all mature at
as near the same time as possible
The quality will be better and stock
will relish it more.
A couple of years ago an Iowa farmer
who keeps a large number of cattle
and grows sorghum extensively told
us that he handled his broadcasred
sorghum with the corn binder, with
practically no waste from MASKING
down by The grain wheel. He cut
round and round the piece, shocked
the bundles up like corn, and found
it decidedly the best way to handle
the crop. Before going into it he
supposed the small wheel would mash
down and waste considerable of the
crop, but, upon trial, found that such
was not the case. In regard to the
feeding of the sorghum the farmer
above referred to- and who, by the
way, also has silo. says:
When immature canes are sub
jected to repeated freezing and thaw-
ing they sour much more quickly
than the mature ones. and. when once
soured, after feeding on the sweeter
provender it is difficult to induce
stock to continue to eat the sorghum
to advantage. After five years Feed
ing OF sorghum and two years of both
sorghum and silage, I much prefer
the silage if l have TO do without one
or the other. When | have both. as
in the last two winters. want to
feed all the sorghum up before any
is soured by alternate freezing and
thawing, say by Jan / at the latest.
and then feed silage until | have
stock well on to grass
Silage can be kept over from year
to year; sorghum cannot. After re-
peated freezes it gets dry and hard.
while silage is always moist and pal
atable. With silage the corn is haul
ed off the ground when days are long
and the weather is good To use
sorghum exclusively hauling would
have to be done all winter. in ali
sorts of weather, cutting up the
ground in soft weather, and the sue
ceeding crop, too. if he had one plant
ed where the sorghum grew. Th91
silage corn is off the ground first an
out of the way of the sowing
wheat, or oats, or grasses. and tneD
are other advantages and disadvan
tages | will not try TO mention.