THE NON-SACCHARINE SORGHUMS 303 



of North Africa are shorter, early, comparatively low in 

 forage and high in grain production, and the grain is flat 

 and of medium size ; (3) those of India have comparatively 

 small heads and seeds, the seeds not decidedly flat ; they 

 produce both forage and grain, but are too large and late- 

 maturing for culture in the United States. 



The second group has thus far furnished most of the 

 varieties that have found a place in United States agricul- 

 ture. The probable reason is that grain sorghum could 

 not compete with maize in the corn-growing belt. There 

 was, however, a distinct demand for crops adapted to the 

 Great Plains, a region too dry for the culture of corn. The 

 sorghums from the more humid regions of the Old World 

 have not always been drought-resistant, and in most 

 cases are too late in maturing. Most of the kafirs and 

 durras meeting the requirements of drought resistance 

 and a short maturing season have come from the drier 

 regions of North Africa and the high plains of South Africa. 



233. Introduction in the United States. — The cultiva- 

 tion of non-saccharine sorghums dates from the intro- 

 duction of White Durra and Brown Durra into California 

 in 1874 and the introduction of kafir in 1876, but they 

 were not generally distributed until about ten years later. 



234. Region where cultivated. — The "grain sorghums" 

 are cultivated for grain and for forage. They are not so 

 desirable for forage alone as are the sweet sorghums ; the 

 fodder is coarser and lacks the sweet sugars in the stem, 

 being less palatable. They are commonly harvested for 

 both grain and forage. As a grain crop they cannot com- 

 pete with corn in the regular corn-growing belt, and there- 

 fore the principal grain-sorghum belt lies just west of the 

 corn-growing belt, following in general the line of 25- 

 inch rainfall on the east and extending west to the Rocky 



