A? BULLETIN 698, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
is thus evident that feterita can scarcely compete with milo as a pro- 
ducer of grain; and milo, it should be remembered, is consistently 
outyielded by Dwarf milo. 
WHITE DURRA. 
é 
~ The durra subgroup differs from the milos chiefly in the broader 
and more hairy glumes, not transversely wrinkled, and the flatter 
seeds. Two durra varieties were introduced into California in 1874 
under the names ‘White Egyptian corn” and ‘‘ Brown Egyptian 
corn,’ it being reported that they had come from Egypt. They 
have since become known as White durra and Brown durra, respec- 
tively. Like the milos, they differ from each other only in the color 
of the seeds. 
The durras are low-growing plants with dry stems and few leaves. 
The heads are ovate or oval, rather compact, and commonly recurved _ 
or pendent. The broad seeds are lenticular in shape and much more 
flattened than in the case of milo or feterita. Very similar forms, no 
doubt the progenitors of these, are still found in cultivation in North 
Africa and in western Asia under the Arabic general name Dari. 
The forms of Turkestan are taller, with much more compact heads, 
and are known there as Dzhugara, a name probably from the same 
root as jowar, the name used in India for sorghum. 
_ The white form of durra was rather extensively grown in the early 
days of dry farming in Kansas under the name Jerusalem corn. The 
brown form never has been commercially important. There are 
real objections to these varieties as farm crops. Among them are 
the recurved heads, the easily shattering seed, and the covering of 
hairs on the glumes. The first makes harvesting difficult, the second 
causes heavy loss of seed in wind or storm, as well as in harvest, and 
the third is very irritating to workmen in thrashing. Careful selec- 
tion has eliminated the pendent heads and Nos. 27 and 81 have 
heads completely erect The shattering habit and hairy glumes 
have not yielded to simple selection, and none of the many hybrids 
has been entirely satisfactory in other respects. 
Nine different lots or races have been included in the experiments, 
seven being included at the start in 1908 and two having been added 
since. In the last three years all but one have been discarded, and 
that one has been retained chiefly for illustration and comparison. 
Of the nine lots tested, Nos. 27 and 81 are selections from the ordinary 
White durra found in the United States, while No. 283 is an unse- 
lected lot of the same. No. 129 represents the Dzhugara from Tur- 
kestan. No. 244 is a form with less compact heads, called Edra, 
from Arabia. Nos. 247 and 248 are from India and not closely 
related tg any of the others. The results of these experiments are 
shown in Table XIII. 
be re ee Le Te 
