The Millets 645 



use of fertilizeks on millet 



Fertilizer tests with millet have given conflicting results, as 

 they have with most other crops. It has been found, however, that 

 a nitrate fertilizer is more likely to be profitable than either 

 phosphate or potash. The crop on soils low in available plant 

 food can be considerably increased by applications of nitrates and 

 phosphates, or of barnyard manure, but it will usually be found 

 more profitable to apply these fertilizers to the land when occupied 

 by some other crop. 



DISEASES OF FOXTAIL MILLET 



The foxtail millets are very free from any destructive plant 

 diseases. In some cases there is a slight tendency to smut, but 

 this difiiculty does not seriously aftect the hay crop, and in the 

 semiarid regions the extent of the damage to the crop of grain 

 is very slight. The common smut of the foxtail millets is tech- 

 nically known as Ustihigo crameri Korn, and it can be controlled 

 by treating the seed with hot water or formalin, according to the 

 published rules for treating the seed of the small grains for smut, 

 page 2758, The formalin treatment is simpler and is recommended 

 over the other method. . 



BARNYAED OE JAPANESE MILLET 



Next to the foxtail millets the Barnyard, or Japanese, millet is 

 of most importance in ISTe^v York. This millet, as noted in the 

 introduction, is known also as Sanwa millet and as Billion-dollar 

 grass. The former name isi the one used, in India, while the 

 latter originated with a certain seed firm hero in the United States, 

 supposedly being applied to Barnyard millet on account of its 

 large yields of hay and seed. Dr. C. C Georgeson, now agronomist- 

 in-charge of the Alaska Experiment Stations, who spent several 

 years in Japan as professor of agriculture in the Imperial Agri- 

 cultural College at Tokio, says that the Japanese name for this 

 millet is " Hie," and continues :* " This is a very common crop 

 in all parts of Japan, especially in the hilly districts where there 

 is no suitable rice land, or where water is not available for irriga- 

 tion. It is grown entirely for its seed, which, when thrashed out 

 and cleaned, is ground and used for human food, being eaten 



* Crozier, A. A. Michigan Experiment Station Bulletin 117, p. 47 (1894). 



