2 BULLETIN 470,' U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



vegetarian diets, and he believed accordingly that kaoliang was very 

 incompletely utilized by the human system. 



In this country feterita, kafir, dwarf milo, and kaoliang are 

 well-known varieties of the grain sorghums which have for some time 

 been used primarily as feeding crops for animals, but which in some 

 instances have formed a part of the human dietary. The people 

 living in those sections of the country where the sorghums have been 

 grown have long known that these grains are suitable for use as food, 

 and the agricultural press has from time to time reported successful 

 attempts to use them for this purpose. Moreover, following the 

 introduction of the sorghums into the agriculture of the United 

 States, commercial attempts have been made to interest the public 

 in these grains for bread making and similar uses. 



Numerous tests of these grains have been made to deter min e their 

 composition and nutritive value as a feeding crop for animals and, 

 in some instances, to learn how they may best be prepared for human 

 consumption. Many baking tests, for example, have been made with 

 the meal of kafir, which.is perhaps the best known of the sorghums, 

 to determine whether it can be used more advantageously alone or 

 mixed with some other meal in ordinary baking practices. The 

 Department of Agriculture 1 has studied the preparation and uses of 

 kafir meal, reporting a number of recipes for incorporating it in such 

 common foods as bread, doughnuts, cookies, etc. A series of baking 

 tests described by Dillon 2 indicates that kafir meal in admixture 

 with wheat flour in the proportion of 1 to 1, 1 to 2, or 2 to 1, makes 

 a very satisfactory bread. Francis 3 reports analyses comparing the 

 composition and food value of feterita, Indian corn, kafir, and 

 wheat, and gives recipes for the preparation of bread and similar 

 products, using part feterita meal and part wheat flour. He con- 

 cludes that feterita resembles corn in composition, having a nutritive 

 value of about 90 per cent of that of corn, and suggests, moreover, 

 that feterita, being somewhat softer than kafir, should be more 

 thoroughly digested. General information and a number of tested 

 recipes compiled from various sources are given by Davis 4 regarding 

 the value of kafir, feterita, and milo as cereal foods. Summers 5 

 reports comparative analyses of feterita and wheat together with 

 the results of a series of baking tests. He found that the best bread, 

 pancakes, or gems, could be made by using 50 per cent of feterita 

 meal and 50 per cent of wheat flour. Similar studies of kaoliang are 

 reported by Fromme 8 , who used kaoliang meal in place of kafir meal 

 in the recipes reported by the Office of Home Economics. 



'U.S. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bui. 559 (1913), pp. 6, 7. 



» Northwest. Miller, 90 (1912),) No. 2, pp. 79, 80. 



a Oklahoma Sta. Circ. 27 (1914), pp. 8. 



* Texas Dept. Agr. Bui. 42 (1915), p. 18. 



» Oper. Miller, 20 (1915), No. 1, pp. 42-44. 



« South Dakota Agr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 158 (1915), pp. 170-174. 



