AGRICULTURAL HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION OF SORGHUM. 11 



It is very extensively cultivated, with a multitude of varieties and 

 names, throughout the major part of India, especially in the interior 

 in native states, which have had only a limited intercommunication. 

 There are some important religious ceremonies observed in connec- 

 tion with its sowing and harvesting. These facts all point conclu- 

 sively to its cultivation there from a remote period. 



In China there is evidence, according to Bretschneider (1893), that 

 scrghums were first known there in the third century A. D. There 

 are numerous doubtful references of earlier date which may apply 

 either to sorghum or to the true sugar cane. As earlv as some of the 

 ancient classics there is found mention of a black millet which bore 

 two seeds in each spikelet. So far as the writer is aware, there are 

 no two-seeded varieties known either in Panicum miliaceum or in 

 Setaria (C'haetochloa) italica. Several varieties of what may be 

 called " twin-seed " sorghums are known in India. Some of these 

 have black and shining glumes, and it is quite possible that the writer 

 of the ancient classics referred to such forms of sorghum. This is 

 the more probable since it is most likely that China received her 

 sorghum varieties from some part of the Indian Empire. 



These isolated records all indicate an early and extensive domesti- 

 cation of this plant. The same conclusion may be deduced from a 

 study of the present distribution of the cultivated varieties. 



(JE( (GRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



Originating in the Tropics of the Old World (fig. 1) , sorghums are 

 now grown in the Temperate Zones of both hemispheres. The bulk 

 of the crop is grown between the parallels of latitude 40° north and 

 south. In the United States and in Manchuria the sorghums are 

 found as far north as latitude 45° or more. The two great centers 

 of the cultivation of sorghum for human food are Africa and India. 

 In both regions it is the staple farinaceous food for a considerable 

 part of the population. The distribution of sorghum in India is 

 discussed in its proper order. A word on some of the general aspects 

 of its occurrence in tropical Africa (fig. 2) may be in order before 

 the discussion of individual regions is begun. 



The absence of permanent records among the African tribes from 

 the Sahara southward nearly to the Cape makes futile any attempt 

 to study the history of sorghum among them. For many tribes it is, 

 however, the most important food plant and is also commonly used 

 in the manufacture of a fermented drink. The widespread dis- 

 persion and cultivation of sorghum among these tribes and their 

 great dependence upon it for food point to its ancient origin and 

 domestication. Still more striking testimony is the extreme rich 

 ness of the varieties and forms which it presents. These are by no 



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