6 THEEE MUCH-MISREPRESENTED SORGHUMS. 



described above, 8 to 15 inches long, and of a pale-yellow color. The 

 glumes are a pale-straw color and the oval seeds whitish to pale buff 

 and about the size of the kafir seed. 



CROP CHARACTERS AND PROBABLE VALUE. 



Strong claims are being made for shallu by some of those who are 

 growing it. Five ways are commonly stated in which the growers 

 believe it excels all other sorghums. These are (1) in drought 

 resistance, (2) in yields of seed to the acre, (3) in the feeding value 

 of the grain, (4) in the tonnage of fodder produced, and (5) in the 

 feeding value of this fodder. These five claims may be discussed in 

 their order. 



(1) Drouglit resistance. — Little is known concerning the absolute 

 drought resistance of shallu. In just what characters drought 

 resistance resides is an open cjuestion. Statements as to the relative 

 resistance of different varieties must always take account of the 

 stand of plants, as well as of differences in the soil, in the fertility, 

 and in the water content of the plats or fields. Experiments so far 

 do not indicate that shallu is more drought resistant than other sor- 

 ghums. In unfavorable seasons it suffers in the same way and in 

 the same proportion, apparently, as do other grain sorghums; that 

 is, on many stalks the heads fail to push completely out of the boot, 

 or upper leaf sheath. 



(2) Yields of grain. — Farmers growing this crop for the first time 

 • commonly estimate that their fields will yield from 75 to 100 bushels 



to the acre. They are misled by the large size of the heads in com- 

 parison with those of milos and kafirs. The heads of shallu are, 

 however, loose and open and usually do not weigh as much as those 

 of the other grain sorghums. Besides this, the shallu heads do not 

 contain as high a percentage of seed in proportion to the weight of 

 the head as do the other grain sorghums. 



The advertiser mentioned in the extracts at the beginning of this 

 circular claims a yield of 200 to 400 bushels to the acre. Such claims 

 are simply preposterous. The best of the grain-producmg sorghums 

 rarely exceed a yield of 50 bushels to the acre. Their average yields in 

 favorable seasons He somewhere between 35 and 40 bushels to the 

 acre. In unfavorable seasons the yields are, of course, much lower. 

 The average yields of milos and kafirs for all seasons in any ten-year 

 period are not likely to be much above 30 bushels. There is yet no 

 evidence that the average yields of shallu will exceed those of such 

 crops as the milos and kafirs. 



At the experimental farms of the Office of Gram Investigations of 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry comparatively low yields of grain have 

 been secured in the experiments with shallu. In the year 1006, 

 which was a very favorable season for grain sorghums in the Pan- 



[Cir. 50] 



