- GRAIN-SORGHUM EXPERIMENTS IN THE PANHANDLE OF TEXAS. 63 
inches in Blackhull kafir and 5.2 inches in Sunrise kafir. The pro- 
portion of suckers to main stalks has exceeded 1 to 1 appreciably 
only once, in 1910, when the suckers formed 63 per cent of the total 
stalks. In general, it may besaid that the Dawn kafir shows about 
the same reactions to environment as does the Blackhull kafir except 
Yn the matter of earliness and consequent yield, especially in un- 
favorable seasons. 
The average acre yield of Dawn kafir, as shown in Tables XX and 
XXII, has been 18.8 bushels in the 9-year period, while that of all 
lots of the ordinary Blackhull kafir has been only 12.3 bushels. 
During this period the best lot of Blackhull has averaged 17.3 bushels 
and the average yield of five lots has been 15.3 bushels. During the 
eight years in which the Sunrise kafir also has been grown and com- 
parison can be made, the average yield of the best selection of 
Blackhull kafir (C. I. No. 71) was 14.2 bushels, that of the Sunrise 
kafir was 15.4 bushels, and that of the Dawn kafir was 17.5 bushels 
per acre. It is in the dry seasons that the Dawn shows its signifi- 
cant advantage over Blackhull kafir. In 1908, a normal season, 
the Dawn was outyielded by ten selections of Blackhull kafir and by 
the average of all. In 1915, an abnormally favorable season, its 
yield was exceeded by those of three out of the six Blackhull selec- 
tions grown, though not by the averae> of all. In every other 
year except 1913, when no yields were obtained from any varieties, 
it markedly outyielded Blackhull kafir. Not only did it exceed that 
variety in average yield, but also in the comparative yield of the best 
plat each year. In fact, the poorest plat of Dawn outyielded the 
best plat of standard Blackhull in every one of the dry seasons. 
WHITE KAFIR. 
White kafir has been grown in the United States since the begin- 
ning of the experiments with the kafirs. In recent years, however, 
it has been displaced by the Biackhull kafir, and now it is rarely 
found in field culture. It differs from the Blackhull kafir in three 
characters, namely, in white glumes instead of black, in smaller and 
shorter plants, and in the inability to push the heads completely 
out of the boot or upper leaf sheath. ‘This last defect probably is 
only a corollary or expression of the lower vegetative vigor of the 
‘variety. — 
Selection to improve its habits in the matter of the exsertion of 
the head was begun as early as 1907. The White kafir was normally 
earlier than the Blackhull kafir. If a race with good heading habits 
could be produced, it might be a valuable crop in unfavorable seasons 
and at higher altitudes where the seasons are short. While some 
progress has been made in producing a race with a more completely 
exserted head, it has not proved a very high yielder. The results 
obtained since 1909 are shown in Tables XX and XXIII. 
