12 Farmers' Bulletin 1126.

case to insure a thick stand of plants in the row. When a seed crop is desired, the rate of seeding should ordinarily be somewhat less than for a hay crop.

HARVESTING.

The most common way of harvesting the grass for hay is with a mower. It cures readily and can be cut in the morning and, if the sun is bright, raked up that afternoon or the next day. After bunching, it is placed in cocks, just as with millet, and removed from these cocks to the barn or stacks after it has thoroughly cured. Because FIG. 8.—Bundles of Sudan grass, illustrating its rapidity of srowtli. 1 rom left to right • No 1, 71 days ; Ko. 2, 50 days ; No. 3, 42 days ; No. 4, 28 days ; and No. 5, 13 days from date of seeding. Sudan grass should not be cut for hay until it has reached the stage of maturity shown by bundles 1 and 2.

of the large amount of juice in the stems of Sudan grass, the leaves cure first and the hay often appears ready to stack when it is not ; therefore, the only sure way to avoid injury by heating is to allow Sudan grass to remain in cocks long enough for the stems to become dry. The leaves are retained well, and if cut at the right stage of maturity and handled properly it will make a bright, leafy, sweet hay of the very best quality.

Where the crop is desired for seed, it is harvested like the small grains with an ordinary grain binder and allowed to cure in shocks.