THE NON-SACCHARINE SORGHUMS. 6l 



they produce, gives them a high place as soiling 

 foods or even as pasture plants where they can be 

 successfully grown. 



The highest adaptation for the non-saccharine 

 sorghums is found at present west from the Missis- 

 sippi river and south from Nebraska, with Kansas, 

 Arkansas and Oklahoma as its center. But both 

 east and west from these states they can be grown 

 profitably over considerable areas. Teosinte has 

 higher adaptation to the states which mark the south- 

 ern boundary of the Republic, but it may be grown 

 successfully as soiling food in the states immediately 

 north of these. 



Soil. All the non-saccharine sorghums would 

 seem to have greater power than corn to gather plant 

 food in a dry soil. They are therefore relatively 

 better adapted than corn to a sandy soil. But it 

 would not be correct to say that they have greater 

 power to grow in a sandy soil than in a sandy loam, 

 nor in a dry climate than in one possessed of con- 

 siderable moisture. They would seem also to have 

 greater power than corn to gather food in soils low 

 in humus, and yet where humus is present in consid- 

 erable quantities they grow more vigorously than 

 where it is present only in meager supply. All these 

 plants gather much of their food in the subsoil, 

 hence the nature of the subsoil has an influence on 

 their growth not very much less than the surface 

 soil. Subsoils, therefore, that contain a layer of 

 hardpan which is near the surface are quite unsuited 

 to the growth of these plants. 



The most suitable soils are those sandy in tex- 

 ture, possessed of a considerable supply of humus 



