File:The history and distribution of sorghum (1910) (14788847433).jpg

Identifier: historydistribut175ball (find matches)
Title: The history and distribution of sorghum
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Ball, Carleton R. (Carleton Roy), 1873-1958 United States. Department of Agriculture United States. Bureau of Plant Industry United States. Government Printing Office
Subjects: Sorghum
Publisher: Washington (D.C.) : G.P.O.
Contributing Library: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library
Digitizing Sponsor: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library

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flourwas also commonly madeinto a porridge with milk.The semisweet pith andsometimes the flowers wereused in medicine. The development of abroom corn from someloose - panicled sorghumtook place in Italy morethan two hundred and fiftyyears ago. Caspar Bauhinin 1G58 states that the slen-der and very rigid driedheads were made intobrooms by the Italians andused for brushing clothingin Italy. France, and alsoGermany. Ray in 1688gives a full discussion ofsorghum and records thisuse of the plant, stating that he himself had Seen FlG- 11-—Plant of sorghum, after Dodoens. 1583. such brooms on sale in Venice. From just what form of sorghumthis selection took place can never be known, but in figure 11 a loose-panicled form is shown, first pictured by LObel in 1576 and copiedby Dodoens. Arduino in 1786 figures one more spreading than ourAmber sorghum (fig. 12) and another with the rhachis much short-ened (fig. 13). either of which would have been an excellent basis forbroom-corn selection. 175
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28 HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION OF SORGHUM. The form introduced into Europe during Plinys time seems tohave been on the order of the sweet sorghums, even though it is notknown to have had a sweet juice. It is noted as having stout culms,7 feet high, and abundant black seeds, the color doubtless referringto the inclosing glumes. Most sixteenth to eighteenth century writ-ers who mention these details describe this sorghum as having red-dish seeds and black glumes, with culms from 7 to 10 feet or morein height and heads about 9 inches long. Many writers from the tenth to the eight-eenth century de-scribe also the white-seeded sorghum usedby the inhabitants ofAsia Minor, Arabia,and Mesopotamia,but none records itsintroduction into Eu-rope. All referencesto its growth in Ci-cilia, or Sicilia (Sic-ily) , are misprintsfor Cilicia. Thisform has been dis-cussed under theheading SouthwestAsia. About 1775 Ardu-ino began at Padua,Italy, his experimentsin sugar productionfrom sorghums. Hecarried on th

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