6-i-i Gkasses and Leguminous Crops in New York 



The legal weight per bushel for seed of the foxtail millets is 

 50 pounds in most states, and well-cleaned seed will weigh between 

 45 and 50 pounds to the bushel very consistently. 



USE AS A PASTURE 



Most of the millets are not suitable for pasture purposes, and 

 this is especially true of the foxtail varieties. The main difficulty 

 lies in the shallow root system, which allows the plants to be 

 pulled up very easily. Another weakness of millet as a pasture 

 plant is that it does not renew its growth very quickly after being 

 cropped oil ; the common and Hungarian varieties are best in this 

 respect. It is not to be recommended, therefore, as a pasture 

 plant except to supply a limited amount of pasture in an emergency 

 to young stock, such as calves or colts, and even for such animals 

 some other annual hay plant might be used to much better advan- 

 tage. Winter rye or spring oats will furnish more and better 

 pasture than will millet. 



VALUE OF MILLET IN ROTATIONS 



Being annual crops, the millets can be used in almost any 

 rotation where a spring-sown crop is required. Most farmers 

 who have grown millet belie\'e it to be rather exhaustive on soil 

 fertility. It has been proved that no more plant food is removed 

 from the soil by millet than by other crops, where a like tonnage 

 of hay was produced. It is more likely that the effect on the 

 following crop comes through the rapid depletion of available plant 

 food and moisture in the upper six or eight inches of soil. Another 

 way in which millet might have a bad effect on the following crop 

 is because of the slight amount of vegetable matter which is left 

 on the soil by a crop of millet which has been harvested for hay. 

 Considering all of these points, it is likely that there is some 

 foundation for the belief that a crop following millet will be less 

 than one that follows a crop of small grain or corn, even though 

 these other crops are not classed as soil builders. Millet can not 

 be recommended, therefore, as a regular constituent in an}' 

 rotation. 



