BREEDING MILLET AND SORGO FOR DROUGHT ADAPTATION. 5 



Several of the selected individuals gave rise to uniform and pro- 

 ductive strains. Comparative-yield tests of these strains, both in 

 drilled plats and cultivated rows during several seasons, resulted 

 in the final selection for increase and distribution of the Dakota 

 Kursk and of the Siberian strain described in the following pages. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW STRAINS OF MILLET. 



DAKOTA KURSK MILLET. 



Dakota Kursk (A. D. I. No. 3) is the name proposed for one of the 

 selected strains of millet which is being distributed on the northern 

 and central Great Plains. The type is a definite one, although 

 closely resembling in its botanical characters certain other strains of 

 Kursk millet. The plants grow erect, or inclined when nearly ripe ; 

 the stools or culms are very numerous and small. The leaves are 

 numerous, comparatively narrow, fine in texture, and of a distinctly 

 lighter green than those of the other selections of Kursk millet men- 

 tioned in this bulletin. The seed head is from 2 to 4 inches long, 

 about five-eighths of an inch thick in the middle, and tapers 

 slightly to base and tip. It has the characteristic stiff bristles of other 

 millets, but the head is close and firm, so that the seed does not shatter 

 easily. The color of the seed coat of mature seeds is nearly apricot 

 orange, as represented by Ridgway. 1 



This variety has not always ranked first among the writer's selec- 

 tions in respect to hay production, but it is one of the best in quality 

 of forage and in habit of growth, and it is also one of the most produc- 

 tive, both of hay and of seed. (See PI. I, fig. 1.) 



SIBERIAN MILLET. 



Siberian millet (A. D. I. No. 4-3) is a larger type of millet than the 

 Dakota Kursk, and therefore produces a somewhat larger tonnage of 

 hay under favorable moisture conditions. The plants grow fairly 

 erect or slightly spreading. The stems are coarser and less numerous 

 than in the Kursk variety, and often have an olive-brown coloring 

 of the basal internodes. The leaves are broad, rather thick, and 

 comparatively coarse. (See PI. I, fig. 2.) The seed head is 3 to 5 

 inches long, cylindrical, and much less compact than in the Kursk 

 millet, usually declined or drooping. The seeds are the same color 

 as in Dakota Kursk, apricot orange, but the shade is paler. 



The results of plat tests at Akron, Colo., and Newell, S. Dak., show 

 that, on the average, Siberian millet (A. D. I. No. 4-3) will produce a 

 slightly larger tonnage of hay than Dakota Kursk. The latter, how- 

 ever, produces a more desirable quality of hay, being finer, more leafy, 

 and possibly more nutritious, as is indicated by the results of chemical 



1 Ridgway, Robert. Color Standards and Color Nomenclature, pi. 14. Washington, 1912. 



