6. Orange. (Fig. 811.) The Orange is a rather stout, erect variety, 6-8 feet tall, 3-11 inches in diameter, yel lowish green, with an average of 12 14 nodes and rather large leaves.
Panicles compact and heavy, oblong or cylindrical, 6-9 inches long, in color a mixture of the red or black glumes and the slightly serted, orange or reddish seeds. The top is secs sionally open or flaring by the spreading of the elongated upper branches. It is one of the original Natal varieties, introduced and at first grown under the native name, Neeazana. It matures in 105-125 days, about 15 days later than Amber, and, after it, is the most widely grown variety in this country, where it is one of the most valuable for forage, silage and syrup. It is found abroad only in France and Australia.
Colman, as now grown, is apparently identical with Orange. It is said to have been a cross be tween Amber and Orange, but now shows almost none of the Amber characters. Kavanaugh is also an Orange sorghum.
7. Sumac. (Fig. 812.) The Sumac is a stout, erect variety, 6-9 feet high, about one inch in diameter, with an average of 14-16 nodes, good foliage and short, very compact, cylindrical, red heads, 4-8 inches long. Glumes very short, black. Seeds deep red, obovate, smaller than in any other variety, but much exserted from the very short glumes. It is also one of the original Natal varie ties, introduced under the native name, Koombana, but apparently not long grown under that name. It matures at about the same time as Orange or slightly later, and is an especially valuable variety for for age, silage and syrup. For forty years this has been the most popular variety in the South, espe cially in the Piedmont districts. It is now largely grown in Texas and Oklahoma also. It has been variously known as Liberian and Red Liberian, Redtop African, Redtop and Sumac. It is the most uniform of our varieties, apparently not being crossed readily by pollen from other va rieties.
8. Sapling. This is a tall and slender variety, 8-12 feet high, to 1 inch in diameter, with 12 15 nodes and slender, cylindrical panicles, 10-14 inches long, with long and mostly appressed branches. Glumes narrow, elliptical, red to black, about three-fourths as long as the oval, red and well-exserted seeds. It matures in 110-125 or 130 days. Owing to its tall, slender habit of growth, and consequent tendency to lodge, it is, like Collier, not likely to prove a valuable variety.
The origin and history are unknown, but it is probably one of the original Natal introductions. It was first grown at the sorghum-sugar experi ment stations in Kansas many years ago, under the name of Red X or Red Cross, and is still grown at Fort Scott, and locally in Missouri and Texas. It has recently been found in the mountains of north ern Georgia and in Texas (from North Carolina seed) under the name of Sapling.
9. Gooseneck. (Fig. 813.) This is the largest and one of the latest varieties in cultivation. The stalks are 8-12 feet tall, 1-2 inches in diameter at the base, with 12-20 nodes ; lower internodes usu ally red ; leaves very large, frequently over three feet long and nearly four inches wide, often red or purple at the base. Peduncles recurved ("goose necked") or erect ; panicles black, contracted, rather dense, ovate or one-sided (secund) and tri angular, 10-50 per cent pendent; spikelets broadly obovate, awned ; seeds small, reddish, shorter than the black, more or less silky glumes. It requires 120-135 days to reach maturity.
Gooseneck is one of the original Natal varieties, but the native name is not known. It was a favor ite in the South many years ago, and is still spar ingly cultivated there. Four years ago this variety was brought to public notice in Texas under the name, "Texas Seeded Ribbon Cane," erroneously said to be a seed-producing variety of the true sugar-cane or ribbon cane. Since then it has been widely advertised and grown in the Southwest under that name. It is a very valuable variety be cause of the large yield of syrup, but it is too late to mature north of Tennessee and southern Missouri.
IV. Kafir.
Deseription.—Stems stout, 1-2 inches in diame ter, 4I-6 or 9 feet tall, with 12-15 nodes ; pith semi-juicy but juice subacid or only slightly sweet ; internodes much shorter than the sheaths (equal ing them in Old kafir), the leaves thus closely crowded ; peduncle erect ; rachis about as long as the heavy, compact, oblong or cylindrical panicle ; glumes about half as long as the seeds, never awned. With the exception of Old kafir, the kafirs form a very uniform and well-defined group of low, stout, stocky, heavily-seeded plants, most closely related to the sweet sorghums.