B. P. I. — 539. 



THE HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION OF 



SORGHUM. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Certain sorghums now hold a large and increasingly important 

 place as grain and forage crops in the semiarid regions of this coun- 

 try. They were all introduced into the United States between twenty 

 and thirty years ago. Few data were secured concerning their habits 

 and adaptations in their native lands, and many valuable years of 

 time and effort were lost in attempts to grow them successfully in 

 regions to which they were not at all suited. 



During the past six years more than 1,200 different lots of domestic 

 and foreign sorghums have been brought together and grown experi- 

 mentally. By far the greater part of the^e were from foreign 

 sources — principally from Africa and southern Asia. In most cases 

 only meager information was obtained regarding the conditions 

 under which they had been grown or to which they are most probably 

 adapted in this country. For these economic reasons and because of 

 the bewildering diversity of forms secured it became necessary to 

 inquire at some length into the whole question of the origin and 

 history of this group of cultivated plants. This paper embodies the 

 results of the investigation. The origin and antiquity of sorghums 

 are set forth, together with their present distribution and culture. 

 The chief types or groups now found in each of the major geo- 

 graphical areas are briefly described, the conditions under which they 

 have developed are pointed out, and their probable adaptations in 

 our own land are indicated. 



The term " sorghum " is used here in the broad and comprehensive 

 sense. It thus includes all the groups popularly known in this coun- 

 try as sorgo or sweet sorghum, kafir. broom corn, shallu, kowliang, 

 durra, and milo. It covers also an enormous number of cultivated 

 forms in other lands with the possible exception of a few, which, as 

 pointed out in the discussion of botanical history, may perhaps be 

 referred to Andropor/on halepensis rather than to A. sorghum. For 

 the convenience of readers not familiar with the sorghums, a rather 

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