BREEDING MILLET AND SOEGO FOE DEOUGHT ADAPTATION. 5 
Several of the selected individuals gave rise to uniform and pro- 
ductive strains. Comparative-yield tests of these strains, both in 
drilled plats and cultivated rows during several seasons, resulted 
in the final selection for increase and distribution of the Dakota 
Kursk and of the Siberian strain described in the following pages. 
DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW STRAINS OF MILLET. 
DAKOTA KURSK MILLET. 
Dakota Kursk (A. D. I. No. 3) is the name proposed for one of the 
selected strains of millet which is being distributed on the northern 
and central Great Plains. The type is a definite one, although 
closely resembling in its botanical characters certain other strains of 
Kursk millet. The plants grow erect, or inchned when nearly ripe; 
the stools or culms are very numerous and small. The leaves are 
numerous, comparatively narrow, fine in texture, and of a distinctly 
lighter green than those of the other selections of Kursk millet men- 
tioned in this bulletin. The seed head is from 2 to 4 inches long, 
about five-eighths of an inch thick in the middle, and tapers 
slightly to base and tip. It has the characteristic stiff bristles of other 
millets, but the head is close and firm, so that the seed does not shatter 
easily. The color of the seed coat of mature seeds is nearly apricot 
orange, as represented by Ridgway. 1 
This variety has not always ranked first among the writer's selec- 
tions in respect to hay production, but it is one of the best in quality 
of forage and in habit of growth, and it is also one of the most produc- 
tive, both of hay and of seed. (See PI. I, fig. 1.) 
SIBERIAN MILLET. 
Siberian millet (A. D. I. No. 4-3) is a larger type of millet than the 
Dakota Kursk, and therefore produces a somewhat larger tonnage of 
hay under favorable moisture conditions. The plants grow fairly 
erect or slightly spreading. The stems are coarser and less numerous 
than in the Kursk variety, and often have an olive-brown coloring 
of the basal internodes. The leaves are broad, rather thick, and 
comparatively coarse. (See PI. I, fig. 2.) The seed head is 3 to 5 
inches long, cylindrical, and much less compact than in the Kursk 
millet, usually declined or drooping. The seeds are the same color 
as in Dakota Kursk, apricot orange, but the shade is paler. 
The results of plat tests at Akron, Colo., and Newell, S. Dak., show 
that, on the average, Siberian millet (A. D.I. No. 4-3) will produce a 
slightly larger tonnage of hay than Dakota Kursk. The latter, how- 
ever, produces a more desirable quality of hay, being finer, more leafy, 
and possibly more nutritious, as is indicated by the results of chemical 
i Ridgway, Robert. Color Standards and Color Nomenclature, pi. 14. Washington, 1912. 
