UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



M BULLETIN No. 470 



ufi-wr ...- HMtifr 



Contribution from the States Relations Service 

 JJ&£*^^U A. C. True, Director 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



December 22, 1916 



STUDIES ON THE DIGESTIBILITY OF THE GRAIN 



SORGHUMS. 



By C. F. Langworthy, Chief, and A. D. Holmes, Scientific Assistant, Office of Home 



Economics. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 1 



Milling the grain sorghums 3 



Cooking tests and the experimental diets 4 



Subjects of the experiments 6 



Methods of procedure 6 



Digestibility of the sorghum meals prepared 



as breads 7 



Page. 

 Check experiments with breads made from 



corn and wheat meals 19 



Digestibility of the sorghum meals prepared 



as mushes 22 



Summary and conclusions 29 



INTRODUCTION. 



As the result of many attempts to find crops suitable for cultivation 

 in the semiarid regions of the Western States of this country, the non- 

 saccharine grain sorghums have been successfully introduced from 

 South Africa, where they have for a long time held a prominent 

 place as a staple cereal crop. In India, China, and other oriental 

 countries the sorghums have been used in both animal and human 

 nutrition, oftentimes comprising the major portion of the available 

 supply of food suitable for human consumption. As an instance of 

 their importance, Lapique 1 states that the dietary of the Abyssinians 

 is essentially a vegetarian one composed largely of durra (Sorghum 

 vulgare). In an exploring expedition through China Meyer 2 observed 

 that one of the sorghums, kaoliang, was extensively used for 

 human food. In some localities it was prepared as a mush and 

 eaten by the very poor coolies with such condiments as gingerroot, 

 garlic, and radishes. By people slightly better off this sorghum was 

 ground into a meal and made into a bread. In both instances 

 Meyer observed that exceptionally large quantities of the grain were 

 consumed, making an even more bulky diet than most strictly 



> Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol. [Paris], 5 (1893), No. 9, pp. 251-258. 

 61396°— Bull. 470—16 1* 



s Personal communication. 



