AGRICULTURAL HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION OF SORGHUM. 27 



In southern Europe the seed at that time had come into common use 

 for fattening pigeons and poultry and less commonly other stock. 

 The forage, both green and cured, was used for various kinds of 

 cattle, though it was early noted that animals sometimes died after 

 grazing on the living plants. The seed was also commonly used in 

 the making of bread by the poorer, or peasant, classes. This bread 

 was brittle, dark colored, and more or less astringent. It was gen- 

 erally regarded as inferior 

 in nutritive qualities to that 

 made from the other mil- 

 lets, as Panicum m'rfiaceum 

 and Chaetochloa (Setaria) 

 italica, or that from the 

 larger cereals. The flour 

 was also commonly made 

 into a porridge with milk. 

 The semisweet pith and 

 sometimes the flowers were 

 used in medicine. 



The development of a 

 broom corn from some 

 loose - panicled sorghu m 

 took place in Italy more 

 than two hundred and fifty 

 years ago. Caspar Bauhin 

 in 1658 states that the slen- 

 der and very rigid dried 

 heads w T ere made into 

 brooms by the Italians and 

 used for brushing clothing 

 in Italy, France, and also 

 Germany. Ray in 1688 

 gives a full discussion of 

 sorghum and records this 

 use of the plant, stating 



that he himself had seen Fig. U.— Plant of sorghum, after Dodoens, 1583. 



such brooms on sale in Venice. From just what form of sorghum 

 this selection took place can never be known, but in figure 11 a loose- 

 panicled form is shown, first pictured by L/Obel in 1576 and copied 

 by Dodoens. Arduino in 1786 figures one more spreading than our 

 Amber sorghum (fig. 12) and another with the rhachis much short- 

 ened (fig. 1.3), either of which would have been an excellent basis for 

 broom-corn selection. 



175 



