CLIMATE FOR SORGHUM 38) 



Injured by such crossing, thus making it desirable to exercise 

 care with regard to the source of seed used for planting. The 

 maintenance of a seed patch grown from seed selected from 

 the best plants of the seed patch of the previous year is to be 

 recommended here, as with other cereals. This is particularly 

 true in the case of broom com, inasmuch as there is consider- 

 able variation in the brush of different plants, crooked and thick 

 centered brushes greatly reducing the value of the product. 

 These forms are probably hereditary and, if so, could be elimi- 

 nated in the course of time by selection, although it would 

 doubtless take some time on account of the influence of cross- 

 ing. Hartley suggests that it might be possible to produce a 

 saccharine v^ariety of broom com, thus securing a variety that 

 would produce both broom and simp. For the production of 

 grain, Kansas prefers long closely compact heads. 



543. Germination. — The germinating power of sorghum is 

 very likely to be low, and poor stands are very common because 

 the grain, even though it has been thoroughly dried, is liable 

 to absorb sufficient water in damp weather to produce fermen- 

 tation. Grain intended for seed should, therefore, be left in the 

 heads until planted. The heads may be either hung up sepa- 

 rately or kept in loose piles in a dr}% well-aired place. Testing 

 the germination power is important and seed that is less than 

 ninety per cent should not be used 



IL CLIMATE AND SOIL. 



544, Climate.— Sorghum is especially adapted to a climate 

 that is both hot and dry. 



" Perhaps the strongest recommendation of Kafir com lies In the fact that it will 

 produce a crop on less rain than is required for com, and that it is not affected so 

 disastrously by hot winds. It Is, therefore, especially adapted to the semiarid 

 West, where com succeeds only one in five or six years because of hot winds and 

 drought It is owing chiefly to this quality that its cultiire has spread so rapidly in 

 Kansas and Oklahoma. Hot winds are the main cause of the failure of the com 

 crop in this region, and they are never more destructive than when they haooer. tr 



