- GRAIN-SORGHUM EXPERIMENTS IN THE PANHANDLE OF TEXAS. 65 
varied from about 3 feet to more than 5 feet, the average being about — 
4 feet. | 
The average acre yield of White kafir in all eight years is about 15 
bushels. This is but little better than that of the average of all selec- 
tions of Blackhull kafir and much less than that of the Dawn kafir. 
» The comparative yields of all leading kafir varieties will be found in - 
Table XXX. White kafir has exceeded Dawn kafir only once, in 
1912, while it fell far below that variety in 1915, the year of bumper 
crops, when its yield was only 37.3 bushels per acre. Although early 
in maturing and of dwarf stature and, therefore, presumably at an 
advantage in the many dry seasons in the past poke yous, its per- 
“opmmnee has been disappointing. 
RED KAFIR. 
Red kafir differs from the Blackhull subgroup, including the 
Blackhull, Sunrise, and Dawn varieties, by its much longer and more 
slender spike and its red-brown seeds. It is one of the two original 
varieties exhibited by the Orange Free State at Philadelphia in 1876; 
it was bred in Georgia for many years and finally distributed in the 
dry-land sections of the southern Great Plains States. In the higher 
parts of the Panhandle of Texas it has not been as popular as the 
Blackhull variety, nor has it proved any better as a producer. Care- 
ful and lec selection so far has failed to improve it suffi- 
ciently in this respect. 
The number of different selections and races in the plats has varied 
from seven or eight in the first six years to only two in each of the 
last three years of the 9-year period from 1908 to 1916, inclusive. 
The total has been 51 plats in the nine years. The results obtained 
are presented in Tables XXIV and XXV. The annual and average 
yields of the best races are compared with those of the other levies 
in Table XXX. 
Red kafir is about six or seven days later at Amarillo, on the 
average, than Blackhull kafir, though in 1915, the very wet year, 
the Red kafir ripened a week earlier than the Blackhull. Usually 
the difference in time is distributed proportionately in both the 
vegetative and fruiting periods. In 1911, however, the vegetative 
period of Red kafir was three days shorter than that of Blackhull 
kafir, though the ripening period was eight days longer. In 1910, 
1912, and 1914, on the other hand, the ripening period was two to 
three days shorter, while the vegetative period was two to eight days 
longer. 1In1915 the vegetative periods of the two were of almost iden- 
tical duration, but the Red kafir ripened in 47 days after heading, while 
the Blackhull required 54.8 days, or eight days more. The Blackhull 
had a little wider spacing of plants than the Red kafir, but this was 
equalized by the production of more suckers, so that the stalk space 
56086°—18—Bull. 698 —5 
