58 BULLETIN 698, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
yields were between 3 and 6 bushels per acre. In two years, 1911 
and 1914, small yields, averaging 18.7 and 10.1 bushels, respec- 
tively, were produced. In 1908 there was a full yield, 33.8 bushels 
per acre, while in 1915 the very large average of 51.9 bushels was 
obtained. The average annual production in the entire 9-year period€ 
based on a total of 109 plats grown, is only 12.3 bushels per acre. 
The highest average acre yield, in this period, is 17.3 bushels. Two 
other lots grown in all nine years yielded 16.9 and 16.5 bushels, 
respectively, while the average yield of five lots is 15.3 bushels. 
The comparatively low returns given by the standard forms of 
Blackhull kafir led to efforts for improvement through breeding. 
The Early, or Sunrise, Kafir, and the dwarf variety discussed next 
in order are two of the varieties resulting from the breeding opera- 
tions. Both have yielded better in the years in which they have 
been grown than any of the older forms, as will be seen in Table XX 
and again in Table XXX, where the annual and average yields of all 
leading kafirs are summarized. 
SUNRISE KAFIR. 
The Sunrise, or Early, kafir (C. I. No. 472) was developed from a 
single head, which bore the selection number 30. It was selected in 
the autumn of 1906 by Mr. A. H. Leidigh, then superintendent of 
the Amarillo Cereal Field Station. The Dawn (dwarf) kafir (C. I. 
No. 340) has been developed from the same head, the exact origin of 
which is not known. Probably it was selected in one of the Black- 
hull kafir plats on the station at Amarillo, or at Channing, Tex., 
where the station was located previous to 1906, but it may have been 
found on some near-by farm. 
Head No. 30 was used to sow a head row in 1907. The resulting 
plants were like ordinary Blackhull kafir in nearly all respects except 
earliness and stature. This row was heading on August 14, while 
none of the other selections headed until August 26, or 12 days later. 
In height, row 30 varied from 3.5 to 5 feet, while the other selections 
ranged from 4.5 to 5.5 or 6 feet. The heads were compact, but not 
completely exserted from the upper sheath. The glumes were black, 
and the kernels apparently were a little longer than those of ordinary 
kafir. 
The earliness and variable stature, as also the scarcely exserted 
heads, indicate hybridization. Since the plants in other respects are 
so typically Blackhull kafir, the hybridization must have been be- 
tween that variety and another having very similar characters. 
Among all the grain sorghums, only White kafir could impart earli- 
ness, dwarf stature, and shorter peduncles to Blackhull kafir without 
changing its other characters. It seems safe to conclude, therefore, 
that we have here the progeny of a chance hybrid between Blackhull 
afr and White kafir. 
a 
