THE SORGHUM PLANT 281 



there is good evidence that it was an important crop in 

 both Africa and South Asia hundreds of years before the 

 Christian Era. A reference to millet in the Bible 

 (600 B.e.) probably refers to sorghum. (Ezek. x. 4. The 

 word millet is translated " dochan " in the original 

 Hebrew text, a word still in use in Arabic for various 

 forms of sorghum.) Sorghum is well adapted to meet the 

 needs of a primitive agriculture. The seeds provide 

 human food, while the plant furnishes abundant fodder for 

 animals. Under favorable conditions the plant will nin 

 wild to some extent, and is better able to care for itself 

 than any other of our important cultivated plants. 



Sorghum is at present the most important cereal food 

 of the native people of Africa, and is a very important 

 crop through the southern half of Asia. There are no 

 statistics of the world's production of sorghum. The 

 United States crop is estimated at about 3,000,000 acres 

 and that of India at 25,000,000. The crop of Africa and of 

 Asia Minor should approximate that of India. 



BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION 



Order — Gramineoe. 



Tribe — Andropogonem. 



Genus — Andropogon. 



Species — A . Sorghum var. vulgare. 



211. Ball 1 has suggested the following classification as a 

 key to the principal groups of sorghum : — 



I. Pith juicy. 



A. Juice abundant and very sweet. 



1. Internodes elongated ; sheaths scarcely overlapping ; 

 leaves 12-15 (except in Amber varieties) ; spike- 

 lets eUiptic-oval to obovate, 2.5-3.5 mm. wide ; 

 seeds reddish brown. I. Sorgo 



1 Ball, Cahlbton R. U. S. Dept. Agr. , Bur. Plant Indus., Bui. 175, p. 8. 



