34 HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION OF SORGHUM. 



find a market for their seed, resulted in the speedy multiplication of 

 the so-called i- varieties " to an enormous 'extent. Two hundred or 

 more names are recorded for saccharine varieties alone. It is doubt- 

 ful if the number of actual varieties concerned was ever more than 

 twenty. Xot more than a dozen are now in cultivation in this coun- 

 try. Of these, Amber and its forms are said to be directly derived 

 from the original Chinese sorgo, though it has not been proved that 

 some of these forms were not secured in Africa. All others are pre- 

 sumably descended from the Natal varieties. The definite varietal 

 origin of some is known, as Orange and perhaps Planter from Neea- 

 zana. and Sumac from Koombana ; others, as Collier, Planter, Sap- 

 ling, Gooseneck, Honey, etc., can not be certainly connected with a 

 particular one of the poorly described African varieties, but are most 

 surely original sorts from that source. 



The sorgos, or saccharine sorghums, are now grown to a very lim- 

 ited extent for sirup production and to quite a large extent for 

 forage. The total area grown in the United States is probably about 

 one and one-half millions of acres annually. A large part of this 

 is in the southern half of the Great Plains area. During the recent 

 unusually wet seasons there has been a perceptible decrease in the 

 acreage in that region, owing to the opportunity for better crops of 

 corn and cereals. The Amber, Orange, and Sumac varieties make up 

 the bulk of the crop. 



Kafir and durra are of quite recent introduction and distribution 

 in the United States. Varieties of the kafir group first reached this 

 country in 18TG, but were not generally distributed until ten years or 

 more later. The original variety, white kafir. has almost completely 

 disappeared from cultivation. Its place has been taken by the more 

 recent blackhull kafir, which makes up probably nine-tenths of the 

 total kafir crop, red kafir furnishing the remaining tenth. White 

 durra and probably other durras have been introduced many times 

 since colonial days, but without permanent results until 1874, when 

 our white durra and brown durra were brought into California. The 

 total area of these two crops probably does not exceed 50,000 to 

 60,000 acres annually. Milo appeared about 1885 under circumstances 

 not yet ascertained. The annual acreage is probably about 300,000 

 acres. The total area devoted to kafirs and durras combined is prob- 

 ably not far from another one and one-half millions of acres. This 

 would make a grand total of three million acres of sorghums annually 

 grown in the United States." Their annual value may be conserva- 

 tively estimated at $30,000,000. 



"These estimates were made in June. 190S. 

 175 



