[Civ. 122 — C.^ 



FETERITA, A NEW VARIETY OF SORfxHUM/ 



By H. N. ViNALL, A.ssistant Aprostolofiisf, Office of Foraf/c-Crop Iiivestipations, 

 aud Carleton R. Ball. Aurouoinist. Office of ('creai 1 nresti(i(ttion><. 



HISTORY. 



The name '' feterita "' is used for a variety of sorg'hum first obtained 

 in 1901 by the Office of Foreign Seed and Phint Introduction as 

 " Feterite" from B. Nathan & Co., Alexandria, Egypt. Only a small 

 quantity of seed was secured, and this was distributed under Seed and 

 Plant Introduction No. 6691 to three persons in Arizona and Kansas, 

 but no records of the results obtained are available. It is certain, 

 however, that the variety did not become established at that time. 

 The second importation, assigned S. P. I. No. 19517, was received 

 November, 1906, from Mr. V. F. Naggiar, of Alexandria, Egypt, who 

 obtained the' seed from Sudan. In 1908 an additional supply, S. P. I. 

 No. 22328, was secured through Mr. R. Hewison from Khartum, 

 Sudan, in which region it is commonly grown under the name 

 " feterita." As it is a member of the durra group of sorghums, the 

 name " Sudan durra '■ has also been applied to it. The value of 

 feterita as compared with the other sorghums of the Sudan is indi- 

 cated by the following quotation from Schweinf urth : - 



Both varieties of the common sorghum, which here aboiuid in all their minor 

 differences of colour, shape, and size of grains, yield well-nigh a dozen different 

 descriptions for the market at Khartoom. The standard of value is fixed by the 

 Fatareetah, a pure white thin-skinned grain, which also is grown by the negroes 

 in the Seriba. 



FitzGerald ^ also speaks of feterita as the most valuable of the 

 varieties grown by the natives of Sudan. It has been tested for six 

 years at the Chillicothe Forage Field Station and for five years at 

 the Amarillo Cereal Field Station, both in northwestern Texas. It 



1 Issued Apr. 10, 1913. 



Much of the material for this publication was collected at Chillicothe, Tex., by Mr. G. E. 

 Thompson, formerly connected with the Office of Forage-Crop Investigations. The publi- 

 cation as now presented was completed by the writers after Mr. Thompson's resignation 

 from the Department of Agriculture. 



- Schweinfurth, (ieorg. The Heart of .Vfrica. Tr. by Ellen E. Prewer. New York, 

 1874, V. 1, p. 245-24G. 



3 FitzGerald, W. W. A. Report on the Improvement and Possible Development of the 

 Cultivable Products of the Sudan, Cairo, 1001!, p. 2."). 



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