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DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



In this connection it is a matter of interest to inquire how it hap- 

 pened that a grass which has promise of such high value as Sudan grass 

 should have so long escaped attention. You can readily understand that 

 the negro tribes of Africa in cultivating sorghum, which was their corn 

 crop, would be primarily interested in those which produced large seeds. 

 We must assume that the plants they cultivated all produced seeds having 

 food value in the wild stage, and in fact at least one of the wild forms 

 known in Africa was thus gathered by the negroes. In the further cul- 

 tivation of these plants they would, of course, be primarily interested in 

 the greater production of grain, and thus it has come about that we have 

 the numerous varieties of sorghum having only one or a few stout stems 

 and large heads with comparatively large seeds. On the other hand, the 

 negro would not be interested in a hay plant as such, as no primitive tribe 

 ever cultivated forage as such. Consequently these grasslike sorghums 

 would be completely neglected so far as cultivation by the negro is con- 

 cerned. 



Incidentally some possibilities in regard to Sudan grass not before 

 realized in the sorghums now seem to be assured. Among our Sudan 

 hybrids we have some which are relative dwarfs — that is, which grow only 

 3 or 4 feet high, while the ordinary plants grow 6 to 7 feet high — and 

 which possess considerably larger seeds. We are here, I feel confident, 

 on the threshold of developing a variety of grain sorghum which will be 

 a small grain crop — one that can be harvested readily with the same type 

 of machinery which we use for our wheat and oats. I am sure that we 

 shall have a number of varieties of these small grain sorghums having 

 slender straw, not much coarser than wheat, and with various types of 

 grain as heavy as the straw will be able to support. 



Inasmuch as Sudan grass has already given, under exceptionally favor- 

 able circumstances, yields as high as 60 bushels of seed, we can, I think, 

 look forward to developing these small grain sorghums so that they will 

 yield very heavy crops of grain. This, of course, is merely an incidental 

 outcome which may or may not help solve the problem of profitable crops 

 on lands not now cultivated. It serves to illustrate, however, tjie possibili- 

 ties that still exist in ancient crops when they are studied intensively. 



The mention of these dwarf Sudan grass hybrids leads me to discuss 

 one other point usually associated with dwarf ness which has become of 

 great importance; namely, earliness. It is obvious with the small rain- 

 fall in the Great Plains Region that any additional earliness, or rather 

 shortness of life period, that can be secured in the sorghums will tend to 

 make their yield more certain, as a crop can be planted later if necessary 

 when the moisture conditions are more favorable. Sudan grass is earlier 

 than any other variety of sorghum yet known, and if we can retain this 

 earliness or get increased earliness in the form of a small grain crop, it 

 will permit the extension of the area over which sorghum crops can be 

 grown. I predict with considerable confidence that we shall obtain this 

 desired end from the hybrids of these early grass-sorghums. 



