GKAIN-SOEGHUM EXPEEIMEISTTS 11^ THE PANHANDLE OF TEXAS. 53 



The Kafir Group. 



The kafir group already has been described and the leading varie- 

 ties separated by means of a simple key. They are the largest plants 

 and the latest in maturing of all the groups. While there is con- 

 siderable difference in size and earliness between the different varie- 

 ties of kafir, none of them is both as dwarf and as early as some vari- 

 ety m each of the other groups except, perhaps, shaUu. In most of 

 the southern Great Plains area, the kafirs were the first varieties to be 

 extensively grown. 

 In Texas the milos 

 probably had the 

 start of the kafirs, 

 but in Oklahoma 

 the widespread pro- 

 duction of milo has 

 been a more recent 

 development, while 

 in Kansas milo is 

 scarcely yet a com- 

 petitor of kafir. 

 Heads of four vari- 

 eties are shown in 

 figure 8. 



The results ob- 

 tained from the vari- 

 ous kafirs are shown 

 m Tables XIX to 

 XXX, inclusive. It 

 wiU be noted that, 

 on the whole, the 

 kafirs have made 

 their good yields in 

 years of normal rain- 

 fall and have yielded 

 little in years of de- 

 ficient precipitation. 

 Since com can not be grown at aU under these conditions, it is no 

 disparagement to the grain sorghums that some are less adapted than 

 others. Each variety or subgroup of the kafirs is considered sepa- 

 rately, and the results obtained are shown in separate tables. 



BLACKHULL KAFIR. 



The number of different lots and selections of Blackhull kafir 

 which have been under experiment has decreased from 19 at the 

 beginning, in 1908, to only 5 in 1916. They vary Uttle among them- 



FiG. 8.— Heads of four varieties of kafir: ^ , White kafir; 5, Guinea 

 kafir (Guinea corn of the West Indies); C, Blackhull kafir; D> 

 Red kafir .(About one-fifth natural size.) 



