Descriptions of varieties of sweet sorghum.
1. Amber. (Fig. 810.) This is the earliest vari ety, maturing in about 90-100 days; stems slender, 5-7 feet tall, averaging 8-10 nodes, branching freely late in the season ; leaves rather slender. Pani cles black, loose and very open, 8-12 inches long,ob long or ovate pyramidal in outline, fre quently one sided (secund) and triangular through t h e leaning of the stalks, the lower branches usually droop ing. Typically awned, but awns decidu ous at matur ity, and some times entirely wanting. Glumes broad, jet black, more or less silky-hairy, exceeding and enclosing the orange or reddish, oval seeds. Exceeding variable. Forms with contracted panicles are common, especially in the Plains region and the extreme North, where lack of moisture and short season prevent luxuriant growth. It is known commercially under many names, as Early Amber, Minnesota Amber, Im proved Amber, Wisconsin Amber, Black Dwarf, and others. Is found in cultivation on every continent.
Amber is very subject to blight and smut.
Minnesota Amber was originated through selec tion more than forty years ago by Mr. Seth H. Kenney, of Waterville, Minn. It is distinguished by more slender panicles with longer branches and larger spikelets, by glabrous and usually glaucous or bluish-white glumes which are less rigid in texture, and by absence of awns.
Folgers Early was developed as a specially pro ductive syrup strain, and when true to name is said to be somewhat later.
2. Red Amber. This differs from Amber mainly in the red empty glumes, but is also 5-10 days later. It is now cultivated in this country only spar ingly if at all, but was probably in more general use at one time. The seed has recently been re ceived from Australia under the name Orange. The value is the same as for Amber.
3. Honey. This is a very distinct variety re cently discovered in the Southwest. Stalks 7-10 feet high, averaging 13-18 nodes in different localities, stout, 1-1i inches in diameter at the base, very sweet. The stems are markedly tender in comparison with other stout varieties. It is, however, the latest variety known, requiring 130 140 days to mature. For the southern states it is
likely to prove one of the best syrup varieties.
4. Collier. This is a tall slender variety, 7-10 feet high, less than an inch in diameter, averaging 12 or 13 nodes, medium late, requiring 110-130 days to ripen. True Collier may be recognized by the resemblance of its panicle to a small broom corn panicle, 6-10 inches long, the rachis much shortened or occasionally half or more than half as long as the panicle; branches long and slender, drooping on all sides or, when the slender stalks are leaning, drooping on one side only; seeds deep orange or red, slightly exserted from the dark glumes with pale margins.
5. Planter's Friend. This is a fairly tall and stout variety, erect, 7-9 feet high, averaging 13 or 14 nodes, 1 inches in diameter at the base, yellowish green in color ; leaves large ; panicle usually compact but not heavy, 5-8 inches long, lighter in color than that of Orange, the glumes a light straw-color and the seeds very pale orange in dry regions, glumes and seeds both strongly reddened in more humid climates. The top of the panicle is often flaring through the spreading of the longer upper branches; the rachis is normally more than two-thirds as long as the panicle but occasionally much shortened, and the long branches are then more or less drooping.
The origin of this variety has not been ascer tained, but it is probably one of the original Natal varieties, grown in Kansas as early as 1889, in India in 1875, and now in common cultivation in Australia. It is found in local cultivation in many of the southern and southwestern states under such names as Improved Orange, McLean, Silver, Silver-drip, Silver-rind, Simmon's Cane, Sourless and "Straightnecked Ribbon Cane." The seed is not obtainable commerci ally. A variety known as Sugar-drip, locally cultivated in North Carolina and Texas, is a probable hybrid of this variety with Blackhull kafir. Plant er's Friend ripens at about the same time as Orange, to which it is most closely related, and is likely to have about the same value as a syrup and forage plant.