MILLET.
Dukhn, . . . ARAB: Navaria, . . . MALEAL.
Navonay,. . . . CAN. Arzun, . . . PERS.
Liang, Kau-liang, . CHIN. Milbo, Mindoo, . PORT. Cay khe, . Com.-CHIN. Prosso, . . . . Rus. Hine, . . . DAN., GER. Kangu, Priyangu, SANSK. Rid, Rala, . . . HIIKII. Tana-hal, . . SINGH.
Gierst, HUT. Mijo, SP.
Kang, . Gur., HIND. Tenny, . . . Tam.
Miglio, IT. Koraloo, . . . TEL.
The millets belong to the natural order Paul cacem. Various kinds are met with in the hottest parts of Africa, in the south of Europe, in Asia Minor, and in the East Indies. In India they hold a rank second to rice alone, and those chiefly cultivated for food are as follows :— Eleusine coracana, Gartner, Marwa. E. stricta, Roxb., Ragi.
Oplismenus frumentaceus, Boxb., Damra Shama. Panicum Italicum, L., Kangoo.
P. miliaceum, little.millet, Sawee Cheena. Paspalum stoloniferum, Linn., Kodu. Penicillaria spicata, Willd., Bajra.
Poa Abyssinica, Ait., teff bread plant.
. Setaria Germanica, Beauv., German millet. Sorghum bicolor, Wilkie., Kala Deb-dhan. S. cernuum, S. saccharatum, Pers., Sada Deb-dhan. S. vulgare, Pens, Jowari, great millet.
Millets are known as petit mais, or tropical crops. In India, they form a great part of the food of the labouring people everywhere but on sea-board, in the valleys, and on the banks of rivers, perhaps as much as rice, and more than wheat, and in Egypt, perhaps, surpass all other crops in importance. In Western Africa they are the staff of life. In China, the Setaria Italica, the S. glauca, the Panicum miliaceum, Sorghum vulgare, and S. saccharatum are all cultivated. Turkey abounds in small grains. Panicum miliaceum, P. frumentaceum, and P. glaucum are all grown in the East Indies and China. The Setaria Germanica, German millet plants, are readily increased by division of the roots or by seed, and will grow in any common soil. The West Indian species are Panicum fascieulaturn and P. oryzoides.
In Southern India, there are three kinds of sorghum, white, green, and red ; their straw is of great bulk and goodness, and furnishes good pro vender for cattle, being preferable to that of rice. It is, however, given dried, as the green plant is injurious. Among culmiferous plants and legumes used in the east are the Panic= Italicum, Eleusine coracana (the meal of which is baked and eaten in India and Ceylon under the name of Corakan flour), and Paspalum of several varieties. Sorghum vulgare, a principal grain of Southern Asia, is cultivated throughout Western Hindustan, and inmost parts of the Western Dekhan, between the Nerbadda and the Godavery.
In the United States, Setaria Germanica is grown for hay, being found a good substitute for clover and the ordinary grasses. The plant. flourishes well on rather thin soils, and it arows so fast that when it is up and well set it is seldom much affected by drought. Half a bushel or more of seed to the acre is the usual quantity sown, broadcast and harrowed in. The ordinary yield of crops may be put at from a ton to a ton and a half of hay to the acre. It should be cut
as soon as it is out of blossom ; stand later, the stems are liable to become too hard to make good hay. It grows ordinarily to the height of about 3 feet, with compact heads from 6 to 9 inches in length, bearing yellow seed. The sub varieties of this are the white and purple-seeded. The Italian millet, Panicum Italicum, is larger than German millet, reaching the height of 4 feet in tolerable soil, and its leaves are correspondingly larger and thicker. The heads are sometimes a foot or more in length, and are less compact than the German, being composed of several spikes slightly branching from the main stem.
•Sorghum vulgare, great Indian millet, is the Andropogon sorghum of Roxburgh. It is grown in most tropical countries. In the West Indies it is chiefly raised for feeding poultry, and is called Guinea corn. In Egypt it is known as Dharra, in Hindustan and Bengal as Jowari, in the Tamil country as Cholum. It is harvested in December and January, requires a light soil, and is usually grown after Eleusine coracana. The red kind ripens a month earlier than the rest, or about four months from the time of sowing, at the close of May or early in June. A gallon and third of seed is sown per acre, and the produce averages 16 bushels. For the great bulk and goodness of. its straw, which grows usually to the height of 8 or 10 feet, it is sometimes sown for fodder in the beginning of April, and is ready to cut in July. This grain is frequently fermented to form the basis, in• combination with gur or half-made sugar, of arrack, and in the hills is fermented into a kind of beer or sweet wort, and drank warm.
Penicillaria spicata is cultivated throughout India. From one to four seers are sown ,on a bigha of land, and the yield is about four maunds per acre. It is sown after the heavy rains com mence, and the plough serves to cover the seed. The crop is ripe in three months, and the ears only are taken off at first. Afterwards the straw is cut down close to the surface of the soil, to be used for thatching, for it is not much iu request as fodder. Being a grain of small price, it is a common food of the poorer class of natives, and really yields a sweet palatable flour. It is also excellent as a fattening grain for poultry.
Poa Abyssinica is one of the bread corns of Abyssinia. The bread made from it is called teff, and is the ordinary food of the country, that made from wheat being only used by the richer classes. The way of manufacturing it is by allowing the dough to become sour, when, generating carbonic acid gas, this serves instead of yeast. It is then baked in circular cakes, which are white, spongy, and of- a hot acid taste, but easy of digestion. This bread, carefully toasted, and left in water for three or four days, furnishes the boza or common beer of the country, similar to the quas of Russia.