1 
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
I BULLETIN No. 976 
Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 
JZl^'^^U ' WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 
Washington, D. C. PROFESSIONAL PAPER January 20, 1922 
CULTURAL EXPERIMENTS WITH GRAIN SORGHUMS 
IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE. 
By Benton E. Rothgeb, formerly Assistant Agronomist in Charge of (Iraiii-Sorglium 
and Broom- Corn In vestigations, Office of Cereal Investigations. 
Page. 
History of the experiments 1 
Description of the Amarillo Cereal Field 
Station ' 2 
Location 2 
Physical factors 4 
Experimental methods 11 
Plat experiments 1 1 
Crop rotation 11 
Method of seeding 11 
Methods of obtaining data 11 
Environing conditions 12 
Date-of-Seeding experiments 13 
Dwarf milo 14 
Feterita 17 
Page. 
Date-of-Seeding experiments — Continued . 
Dawn kalir 18 
Manchu kaoliang 20 
Comparative yields in date-of-seeding 
experiments 21 
Spacing experiments 23 
Dwarf milo 23 
Dawn kafir 30 
E n vironmen tal exper imen ts 3G 
Agronomic data 38 
Chemical composition 39 
Simimary 41 
Publications on the grain sorghums 43 
fflSTORY OF THE EXPERIMENTS. 
THE OFFICE OF CEREAL INVESTIGATIONS began experi- 
ments with grain sorghums in the Panhandle of Texas 
in 1904. These experiments were conducted for three years at 
Channing, Tex., on the the X I T Ranch. In 1906 the work was 
transferred to ^^jnarillo, Tex., where it was continued until the close 
of the season of 1919. Early results indicated that these crops were 
well adapted to Panhandle conditions, and the demand for informa- 
tion concerning them resulted in the expansion of the work, begin- 
ning in 1908. 
The data obtained are the basis of man}^ statements made in 
numerous popular and scientific publications.^ The detailed data 
obtained from the varietal experiments in the 9-year period from 
1908 to 1916, inclusive, are published in Department Bulletin No. 
698. The detailed results from the date-of-seeding, rate-of-seeding, 
and environmental experiments during the 6-year period from 1914 
to 1919, inclusive, are presented herein. 
1 A list of these publications is printed at the end of this bulletin. 
52680°— 21— Bull. 976 1 
