MILLETS.
In India, millet takes the place of rice in the dry regions of that vast country. A great abundance of small seed is borne in the thick spikes of certain robust grasses of several different kinds. In several oriental countries the food of the people is made, to a considerable extent, of millet seed. We know nothing about how it tastes and looks, for the millets here are raised entirely for feeding to cattle, or as a catch crop to plow under, for the enrichment and lightening of heavy soils.
Millets are ancient grains, the first that man gathered in the wild, and sowed seed of to get a better harvest on better ground. The seed is prepared in various ways: in porridge by boiling the grain whole, or first ground into meal. Some times it is eaten raw; sometimes parched and eaten dry, or boiled in milk.
Hungarian grass, a fox-tail millet, is a good example of the group whose seeds are borne in compound spikes, each full as a heavy bunch of grapes, and crowded on the central stem, forming a long head that the stalk cannot hold erect.
Pearl or cat-tail millet holds up its stiff, bearded spike, six to fourteen inches long, on a stalk that towers to a height of from six to fifteen feet. Such a plant can produce a wonderful amount of forage, and it may be cut three times a year in temperate climates. Its succulence prevents its quick curing as hay, and the quick development of tough fibres spoils it for hay if left till ripe. So farmers test the new plants to find out which ones are best for their needs. Millets may be the great Amer ican silage crop of the future. They promise well for pastures, and for green manure to sow after a grain crop has failed. The mixed bird seed sold for canaries contains some millet.
Poultry foods are enriched by an addition of Hungarian and Proso millets, both large-grained and as rich in protein as wheat. The Prosos are a group with better seed, but poorer as a forage plant.