The Soegiiums 653 



in 1700, having been brought, there by traders from the West 

 Indies. 



Broom corn was grown in colonial times, and " Chinese sor- 

 ghum," a sweet variety much like the Black iVmbers that we 

 now have, was introduced from France in 1853 and widely dis- 

 tributed by the United States Patent Office in 1857. Since 1857 

 numerous varieties have been introduced into this country — 

 mainly by the United States Department of Agriculture — and 

 the crop has become of considerable importance, especially in the 

 semiarid regions. 



The statistics regarding the acreage of sorghums in the United 

 States are very incomplete because almost all of the sweet sor- 

 ghums harvested for fodder are reported under " coarse forage," 

 which includes corn fodder and other coarse forage plants, as well 

 as the sweet scJrghums. The Thirteenth U. S. Census (1909) 

 gives the acreage of sorghums not included under " coarse forage " 

 as follows: 



Sorghum for sirup 444,089 acres 



Broom corn 326,102 " 



Kafir and milo 1,635,153 " 



2,405,344 acres 



Very few states report in detail the sorghum acreage through 

 their State Board of Agriculture. Where this is done, as it is in 

 Kansas, the importance of the sweet sorghums in comparison with 

 the other groups is apparent. In 1910 the sorghum acreage in 

 Kansas was as follows: sorgo, 512,621 ; kafir, 636,201 ; milo, 100,- 

 700. Only 12,879 acres of the sorgo were used for sirup purposes. 



In J^ew York the sorghums have never been popular and they 

 can be recommended only for forage purposes. As a grain crop 

 the7 cannot compete in this rather cool and humid climate with 

 com, wheat, and oats. They can be utilized profitably, perhaps, 

 on some of the drier soils when a soiling or quick-growing hay crop 

 is needed. For this purpose some of the earlier-maturing varieties 

 of sorgo are best. 



Sorghum is probably the most variable of any of the cultivated 

 field crops. Several attempts at classification have been made, 

 but the continued cros&-pollination that takes place when the 



