226 



The Journal of Heredity 





V' 



., -^1 



A HEAD OF ADLAY 



Figure 13. Some of the most prolific kinds 

 have very thin hulls, making them desir- 

 able as grain varieties. There is great varia- 

 tion in the amount of hull found on the seeds, 

 in some of the hard-shelled varieties it consti- 

 tutes 74 percent of the weight of the seed, in 

 others only 23 per cent. These figures are for 

 unimproved varieties, and by the application of 

 modern methods of hybridization and selection 

 the percentage of hull should be greatly re- 

 duced. 



with from 33 to 50 per cent wheat 

 flour; mul a "pumpernickel" of good 

 flavor, though too heavy to gain 

 general acceptance, was made with 

 an 80 per cent adlay flour mixtiu'e. 



DKSCRIPTIO.\ OF PLANT 



The adlay plant is a coarse annual 

 grass, 2.5 meters high, monoecious like 

 its well-known relative, maize. The 



ordinary wild form has hard, beadlike, 

 shiny seeds for which it is cultivated as 

 an ornamental in the United States 

 and Europe. The hard shell or 

 hull which in some varieties constitutes 

 74 per cent of the fruit makes these 

 practically valueless as grain. In the 

 varieties raised for grain, the hull 

 is so thin and soft that in the most 

 desirable kinds it may be broken by a 

 slight pressure of the finger. In 

 different types the hull has been 

 found to range between 23.4 to 

 47.76 per cent of the total weight of 

 the grain. 



There are many different varieties of 

 adlay, more especially in Burma, 

 varying both in appearance of the 

 plant and the grain, and in the analysis 

 of the latter. In the Philippines seven 

 distinct kinds are known at present, 

 some of which are shown in Fig. 8. 

 In color the dried grains run from a 

 chalky white through various shades 

 of creamy yellow, gray, and brown to 

 almost black. In shape they are 

 spherical to oblong almost like a plump 

 oat grain. There is also great variation 

 in the size of the grains. In some 

 \'arieties, they are not more than 6 mm. 

 long, with as many as 15,500 grains to 

 the kilo, while in others they are more 

 than 10 mm. long, and less than 3,500 

 grains to the kilo. In the most desir- 

 able small-grained types one hectoliter 

 weighs from 46 to 60 kilos. 



The wild form with hard, beadlike 

 seeds was known to Pliny, but the 

 soft-hulled grain form does not appear 

 to have been known to European 

 writers until the seventeenth century, 

 though in India it was undoubtedly 

 cultivated in very ancient times. 



ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF ADLAY 



The yields obtained from field experi- 

 ments have been remarkably high, 

 varying from 1,634 to 3,625 kilos to the 

 hectare. The average yield per hec- 

 tare in six trials in widely separated 

 regions in the Philippines, and the 

 Dutch East Indies, was a trifle more 

 than 2,900 kilos. Allowing for errors, 

 due to small areas, it seems safe to cal- 

 culate an average yield of 2,000 to 



