Harvesting.—For silage and fodder, and for syrup, the sorghum should be cut when the seed is in the dough stage. The silage will be much im proved, if cowpeas are grown and harvested with the sorghum. For soiling, the crop may be cut at any time it is needed, but can be cut most profit ably only after the plants begin to head. The fod der is usually cut with the corn-binder, shocked and stacked, or fed from the shocks the same as corn fodder. It is not usually advisable to stack the fodder until early winter, as the stalks are very succulent and are not thoroughly cured until that time. An acre will produce three to six tons of fodder or eight to twenty tons of green forage or silage.
When the seed has been sown broadcast or with a grain drill, and the crop is to be used for hay, it may be cut at any time after the heads have appeared. The best quality of hay can usually be obtained by cutting when the plants are just past the blooming stage, or before the seed hardens. In dry sections a grain-binder may be used and the bundles shocked, cured and stacked like wheat. In humid sections this is inadvisable, as the bundles are likely to mold. Ordinarily, however, the hay is cut with a mower, allowed to cure in the swath a short time, raked into windrows, cocked and the curing completed in the cock. When well cured it is stacked or put in barns. Considerable care is re quired in curing, as the stems are very succulent. In the South two or more cuttings may be made from a single seeding in favorable seasons. The yield of cured hay ranges from two to eight tons per acre.
Uses.
Sorghum makes excellent pasture for hogs, but in many sections it must be pastured sparingly, if at all, by sheep and cattle. After periods of extreme drought, or when growth is stunted from other causes, the leaves of the sorghums often contain a large amount of prussic acid (p. 388). A small quan tity of this poison is fatal to stock, and death frequently results soon after the sorghum is eaten. Normal growth seldom contains prussic acid in appreciable quantities, and it largely disappears in curing, so that cured sorghum may be fed with little danger. There is also some danger from bloat ing; cattle and sheep should not be turned on sorghum pasture when hungry or when the plants are wet. With the exercise of care, however, the crop can usually be pastured with safety. It should be at least two feet high before stock are turned on it ; for cattle, sheep and horses it may be much more mature than for hogs.
The hay and fodder may be fed in the same way as other coarse hays. The fodder compares favor
ably with corn fodder in feeding value. Sorghum silage is slightly less nutritious than corn silage, as it contains less protein. Kafir and sorghum fod der are usually considered about equal in value ; fodder from the other non-saccharine varieties is rather less palatable and usually contains more fiber. The grain of the non-saccharine sorghums is less valuable for feeding purposes than corn, five bushels of kafir being considered about equal to four of corn. Seed of the saccharine sorghums ranks lower in feeding value than that of the non saccharine varieties, as it contains a larger per centage of hulls and the astringency of the seed coat causes the grain to be less relished by animals than that of the non-saccharine sorts.
Syrup production.
Extent of the industry.—When sorghum was first introduced into this country and for many years thereafter, it was used almost wholly for the pro duction of syrup or molasses. This industry reached its greatest height between 1880 and 1390, when twenty-five to thirty million gallons were produced annually. About 1885 the production of syrup began to decrease, the Census of 1900 showing only 24,000,000 gallons from the crop of 1889, while ten years later, in 1899, the production had further decreased to 17,000,000 gallons. This decrease was due largely to the great increase in the production of the cheap glucose syrups. The cost of manufacture of sorghum syrup necessarily remains high, owing to the large amount of impurity which must be removed from the juice.
Grinding the cane.— For syrup production sor ghum is grown rather thinly in rows three and one-half feet to four feet apart. The stalks are cut for grinding when the seed is in the dough stage or about the time it begins to harden ; if cut earlier the syrup has a green taste, while if not cut till fully ripe the juice carries more impurities and is more difficult to make into good syrup. The cane is frequently cut as it stands, hauled to the mill, and ground. When possible, especially when the crop is grown on a small scale, it is better to strip the leaves and remove the heads from the stalks before grinding, as grinding the leaves and seed with the stalks injures the quality of the syrup. The stalks are usually ground with a horse-power mill, though often gasoline or steam engines are used to furnish the power. The mills ordinarily in use do not extract more than 60 per cent of the juice from the cane.