UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 470 H 
Contribution from the States Relations Service ^"M/Jjj ttag "* 
A. C. True, Director ^W^vSL 
Washington, D. C. PROFESSIONAL PAPER December 22, 1916 
STUDIES ON THE DIGESTIBILITY OF THE GRAIN 
SORGHUMS. 
By C. F. Langworthy, Chief, and A. D. Holmes, Scientific Assistant, Office of Home 
Economics. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 1 
Milling the grain sorghums 3 
Cooking tests and the experimental diets 4 
Subjects of the experiments 6 
Methods of procedure 6 
Digestibility of the sorghum meals prepared 
as breads 7 
Page. 
Check experiments with breads made from 
corn and wheat meals 19 
Digestibility of the sorghum meals prepared 
as mushes 22 
Summary and conclusions 29 
INTRODUCTION. 
As the result of many attempts to find crops suitable for cultivation 
in the semiarid regions of the Western States of this country, the non- 
saccharine grain sorghums have been successfully introduced from 
South Africa, where they have for a long time held a prominent 
place as a staple cereal crop. In India, China, and other oriental 
countries the sorghums have been used in both animal and human 
nutrition, oftentimes comprising the major portion of the available 
supply of food suitable for human consumption. As an instance of 
their importance, Lapique * states that the dietary of the Abyssinians 
is essentially a vegetarian one composed largely of durra {Sorghum 
vulgare). In an exploring expedition through China Meyer 2 observed 
that one of the sorghums, kaoliang, was extensively used for 
human food. In some localities it was prepared as a mush and 
eaten by the very poor coolies with such condiments as gingerroot, 
garlic, and radishes. By people slightly better off this sorghum was 
ground into a meal and made into a bread. In both instances 
Meyer observed that exceptionally large quantities of the grain were 
consumed, making an even more bulky diet than most strictly 
1 Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol. [Paris], 5 (1893), No. 9, pp. 251-258. 2 Personal communication. 
61396°— Bull. 470—16 1* 
