294 CORN CROPS 



A collection of sixteen varieties of sorghum brought 

 from Natal, South Africa, to Europe in 1854 and from 

 Europe to this country in 1857, included several sweet 

 sorghums, from which have been derived our compact- 

 headed types such as Orange, Sumac, and Gooseneck. 



Development of culture in the United States. — ■ While 

 sweet sorghum has remained a secondary crop in the Old 

 World, it had a rather rapid development in the United 

 States, owing to the belief that it would become a great 

 sugar- and sirup-producing crop. In 1857 the United 

 States Patent Office distributed 275 bushels in small lots 

 to farmers ; The American Agriculturist distributed to its 

 subscribers 1600 pounds in small packages, and the next 

 year 34,500 pounds in the same way. At this time exten- 

 sive experiments were being made with it in Europe for 

 the manufacture of sugar, and later the United States 

 Government ^ conducted an elaborate series of experiments 

 for the same purpose. With the development of sugar 

 beets at this time a better source of crj^stallized sugar was 

 found, and the plan of using sorghum for this purpose was 

 abandoned. 



First grown as a sirup crop. — However, sorghum was 

 found to be a cheap source of home made sirup and it was 

 more or less grown for this purpose in every rural com- 

 munity. Local " sorghum mills " were very common dur- 

 ing the eighties in the Central and Western States. Dur- 

 ing the dry years in the early eighties, and again during 

 the general drought of 1892-1894 in Nebraska, Kansas, 

 and southward, sorghums of all kinds were found to with- 

 stand drought. 



There are no available data on acreage of sweet sor- 

 ghum, but the data on Kafir corn (page 304) indicate the 



1 See U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Chem., Buls. 26, 40, etc. 



