SORGHUM

This article appears in Volume V25, Page 434 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SIV-SOU

SORGHUM , a genus of

grasses

GRASSES

belonging to the t jbe Andropogoneae, and including one of the most important tropical grains, Sorghum vulgare,

great

GREAT

millet, Indian millet or

Guinea

GUINEA

corn. In India it is known as jawari (Hindustani), jowari (

Bengali

BENGALI

), cholum (Tamil), and
jonna (Telugu), and in the West Indies as Negro or

Guinea

GUINEA

Corn. It is a strong grass, growing to a height of from 4 to 8 or even 16 ft.; the leaves are sheathing, solitary, and about 2 in. broad and 2z ft. in length; the panicles are contracted and dense, and the grains, which are enclosed in husks and protected by awns, are round, hard, smooth, shining, brownish-red, and some-what larger than mustard seeds. The plant is cultivated in various parts of India and other countries of

Asia

ASIA

, in the United States, and in the

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

of Europe. Its culms and leaves afford excellent

fodder

FODDER

for cattle; and the grain, of which the yield in favourable situations is up-wards of a hundredfold, is used for the same purposes as maize,

rice

, corn and other cereals.
Speaking of its cultivation, Eduard Hackel (in his article on "

Grasses

GRASSES

" in Die natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien) says the culture of Sorghum probably had its origin in Africa, where a variety.
Sorghum vulgare.
known as durra is now cultivated over the entire continent, and has become the most important cereal; the natives also chew the

stem

STEM (O. Eng. staefn, stemn, cf. Du. stain, Ger. Stamm, &c., probably related to " staff ")

, which contains sugar. In Europe it is raised less for bread than for mechanical purposes; the panicles are made into the so-called

rice

-brooms and into brushes. In Germany it is occasionally raised for green

fodder

FODDER

. From the fruit the Kaffirs make an alcoholic drink, Tialva, and the negroes one known as Merisa. Allied species are S. bicolor, much valued in India as a forage-plant, and S. saccharatum, commonly called sorghum or Chinese sugar-cane, which is extensively cultivated in China, North India and Africa. The latter species is grown in America chiefly for the manufacture of molasses from its juice, and in France as a source of alcohol.
A full account of the cultivation and use of the species in India will be found in Sir G.

Watt

WATT, JAMES (1736-1819)

's Dictionary of the Economic Products of India (1893).

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