GEAIN'-SORGHUM EXPERIMENTS IN THE PANHANDLE OF TEXAS. 65 



varied from about 3 feet to more than 5 feet, the average being about 

 4 feet. 



The average acre yield of White kafir in all eight years is about 15 

 bushels. This is but httle better than that of the average of all selec- 

 tions of Blackhull kafir and much less than that of the Dawn kafir. 

 The comparative yields of all leadmg kafir varieties will be found in 

 Table XXX. White kafir has exceeded Dawn kafir only once, in 

 1912, while it fell far below that variety in 1915, the year of bumper 

 crops, when its yield was only 37.3 bushels per acre. Although early 

 in maturing and of dwarf stature and, therefore, presumably at an 

 advantage in the many dry seasons in the past eight years, its per- 

 formance has been disappointing. 



RED KAFIR. 



Red kafir differs from the Blackhull subgroup, including the 

 Blackhull, Sunrise, and Dawn varieties, by its much longer and more 

 slender spike and its red-brown seeds. It is one of the two original 

 varieties exhibited by the Orange Free State at Philadelphia in 1876; 

 it was bred in Georgia for many years and finally distributed in the 

 dry-land sections of the southern Great Plains States. In the higher 

 parts of the Panhandle of Texas it has not been as popular as the 

 BlackhuU variety, nor has it proved any better as a producer. Care- 

 ful and long-continued selection so far has failed to improve it suffi- 

 ciently in this respect. 



The number of different selections and races in the plats has varied 

 from seven or eight in the first six years to only two in each of the 

 last three years of the 9-year period from 1908 to 1916, inclusive. 

 The total has been 51 plats in the nine years. The results obtained 

 are presented in Tables XXIV and XXV. The annual and average 

 yields of the best races are compared with those of the other kafirs 

 in Table XXX. 



Red kafir is about six or seven days later at AmarHlo, on the 

 average, than BlackhuU kafir, though in 1915, the very wet year, 

 the Red kafir ripened a week earher than the BlackhuU. UsuaUy 

 the difference in time is distributed proportionately in both the 

 vegetative and fruiting periods. In 1911, however, the vegetative 

 period of Red kafir was three days shorter than that of Blackhull 

 kafir, though the ripening period was eight days longer. In 1910, 

 1912, and 1914, on the other hand, the ripening period was two to 

 three days shorter, whUe the vegetative period was two to eight days 

 longer. In 1915 the vegetative periods of the two were of almost iden- 

 tical duration, but the Red kafir ripened in 47 days after heading, while 

 the BlackhuU required 54.8 days, or eight days more. The Blackhull 

 had a little wider spacing of plants than the Red kafir, but this was 

 equahzed by the production of more suckers, so that the stalk space 

 56086°— 18— Bull. 698 5 



