32 HISTOKY AND DISTRIBUTION OF SORGHUM. 



the laboring classes, and also as forage for stock. The small seeds are 

 white or pearly white in color and the short glumes are usually 

 black. It is probably the progenitor of the form occasionally found 

 in the United States under the name " white millo maize," and for 

 which the author has suggested the name Guinea kafir. It has no 

 value in this country, unless perhaps for silage in the extreme South. 



United States. 



The early history of sorghum varieties in the United States is 

 quite obscure. It is known that the growing of broom corn for do- 

 mestic use became a considerable industry in colonial times. It is 

 certain also that some grain varieties were introduced and sparingly 

 grown in the early days of the colonies. From time to time a 

 variety, though not always the same one, was exploited, under the 

 name of " chocolate corn," as a substitute for tea and coffee. How- 

 ever, aside from broom corn, no sorghum had become a permanent 

 crop before the middle of the last century. 



Accounts vary somewhat as to the date and manner of the first 

 introduction of the Chinese sorgo (fig. 9) from France. Apparently 

 it was first grown by William R. Prince, a nurseryman, of Flushing, 

 Long Island, New York, in 1853, and sold by him to a few other per- 

 sons for testing in 1854. A hogshead of seed was sold by him in 1855. 

 The United States Commissioner of Patents 6 secured a small quan- 

 tity of the seed in France in 1854 and grew it in 1855, continuing the 

 experiment through the succeeding year. In that year, 1856, a 75-foot 

 row was grown by the editor of the American Agriculturist from 

 seed secured from the firm of Vilmorin-Andrieux & Co., of France. 

 In the spring of 1857 the American Agriculturist distributed over 

 1,600 pounds of the seed to 31,000 of its subscribers. Most of the 

 seed was imported direct from France, though a small quantity was 

 secured from growers in the vicinity of New York, N. Y. In the 

 same year the United States Patent Office distributed 175 bushels of 

 home-grown seed and 100 bushels of imported seed. In the spring 

 of 1858 the American Agriculturist distributed, in 1-pound pack- 

 ages, 34,500 pounds of seed grown in Georgia from its imported 

 seed of the year before. It is not probable that extensive distribu- 

 tions were made after this date. The supply already sent out was 

 sufficient to scatter the variety very extensively over the entire 

 country. The widespread and increasing interest in this crop was 



a Report, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1877, p. 233. 



» Reports, U. S. Patent Office, 1S54, pp. xxii and 219-223; 1855, p. xii and 

 279-280; 1856, p. 5. Report, Iowa State Agricultural Society, 1861, p. 207. 



c American Agriculturist, vol. 20, 1861, p. 6 ; vol. 39, March, 1880, p. 116 ; vol. 

 40, March, 1S81, p. 94. 

 175 



