IXTEODUCTIOX OF SORGnL":M IXTO THE UNITED STATES. 71 



was ia any degree marked, that these many varieties could have been 

 grown by our farmers for thirty years, and have so entirely maintained 

 their identity. In regard to the "AMiite Mammoth," the En-ya-ma, 

 of ]Mr. Wray, the only specimen received at Washington came from 

 AVestern Missouri. Of all the varieties, none is more marked than this 

 one ; and yet, grown year after year beside a sc6re of varieties quite 

 distinct, it has steadily maintained its integrity, not a seed of any other 

 variety is found upon its panicles ; nor has it, so far as careful obser- 

 vation extends, in any way atiected its neighboring varieties. The 

 contrast with maize could not be more noticeable. Under similar con- 

 ditions, hardly an ear of maize in the field would be found uniform 

 as to its seed. 



In this connection, a portion of a letter from Ephraim Link, of 

 Greenville, Tenn., one of our most intelligent cultivators of sorghum, 

 will be of interest. 



It accounts for the origin of the so-called " Link's Hybrid," one of 

 our most valuable varieties of sorghum ; but it will be seen, that there 

 is not the slightest evidence of hybridization given. Lideed, under 

 the circumstances, it appears impossible that hybridization could have 

 taken place, since the single original head of "Link's Hybrid" was 

 found in a field of Honduras. It would seem most likely that, unless 

 this was simply a sport, remarkable for its persistence in retaining its 

 valuable peculiarities, it may have been one of the original Imphees 

 introduced by Mr. Wray, and which, but for the careful observation 

 of Mr. Link, might have been quite lost. It is remarkable, that, of 

 the varieties introduced by Mr. Wray, he is now able to at once recog- 

 nize so many among those cidtivated in America; while, of the large 

 number recently received by the author from Xatal, not one is to be 

 confounded with either of those hitherto examined. 



From letter of Ephraim Link. 



Perhaps six years since, I procured my first Honduras seed from Mississippi, 

 and readily found it much superior to any of the varieties I had before culti- 

 vated, and discarded all others in the endeavor to prevent any hybridization. 

 It remained seemingly pure and fully satisfactory for several years, during 

 which time I furnished the Department at Washington seed for distribution to 

 the amount, in three years, of 50 bushels or more. In my crop of 1879, 1 saw 

 a good many heads indicating a mixture, for which I could not account, and 

 which I had been so careful to avoid, unless the contamination occurred the 

 first year, when another variety grew a little distance off. If so, the contami- 

 nating principle lay dormant three years and had developed only that year. I 

 sent to a friend in Texas for an entire renewal of seed for the planting of the 

 spring of 1880, and found that, and the crop of last year, to be very pure, and 

 to ripen two or three weeks sooner than the same variety before grown. Here 



