33 
opinion of it as a food-grain, but think better of it as a fodder,” 
Sown in March, the crop was cut in the beginning of May, but 
sprang up again into a second growth and yielded a cutting of green 
fodder early in the rains. Sown in July (the rainy season) and eut 
in the middle of August, the green crop weighed 16,000 Ibs., or 
from 2000 to 3000 lbs. of dried hay, per acre. At a hill station 
(Arnigadh) “the hay made from the teff was of exceptional good 
quality and was greedily eaten by the garden bullocks. When it 
was offered to them they were being fed upon jowar (i.e., kaffir 
corn) or sorghum stalks, and, as is well-known, these are remarkably 
sweet, and cattle, when fed upon them, generally refuse other kinds 
of dry food until they find that the sorghum is not forthcoming. 
Our garden cattle, however, seemed to prefer the teff-hay to sorghum, 
as they would not touch the latter until they had devoured the whole 
of the teff placed before them! The experience gained here during 
the last year in the cultivation of teff may therefore be summed up 
as follows :— 
* When sown in the dry season it will yield a light crop of 
grain, and when sown in the rains it yields little or no grain, but 
produces abundance of green fodder, which may be cured into very 
palatable hay where the latter is preferred. In my opinion, teff is 
destined to become the rye-grass of India, and is well worthy of 
more extended trial on some of the Government fodder reserves ” 
(16). 
AUSTRALIA :—The reports were equally favourable, the value 
of this plant for fodder purposes being considered exceptionally 
high. Its chief merits in this respect are the short time it takes to 
mature and its suitability to thrive in dry, sandy regions, where few 
other grasses would flourish equally well (8) 
:—Mr. J. Medley Wood, Director of the Natal 
Botanic Garden, Durban, reported in 1887 (4) as follows :—“I 
received from the Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, a small bag 
of seeds of this plant, which is used in Abyssinia for making bread. 
The seed is very small, and it appeared to me that it would scarcely 
find favour in Natal as a cereal, though possibly in some parts of 
the Colony it might be found useful as a fodder plant. I therefore, 
after having the seed tested, and finding it quite good, distributed 
it in small packets to persons willing to give it a trial, and hope in 
“future report to be able to record the results.” In 1888 he wrote 
(5) :—“ This will, as I suspected, have no value as a cereal, in Natal, 
but very favourable reports have been received of it as a quick- 
growing fodder-grass.” Again, in 1889 (15):—“It was highly 
thought of as a quickly-growing grass, though as a cereal it proves, 
as I had suspected, to have no value in Natal. Whether or no the 
recipients of the seed have thought it of sufficient value to continue 
its cultivation, I have no information. De Schonburgk says that 
it stands drought well, and is a good grazing grass.” 
As a druught-resisting grain crop, for relieving a famive in India, 
the introduction of Teff does not appear to have been a success. 
This result and the details contained in the above reports, suggest 
the possibility that the Teff introduced was the variety known as 
Thaf Tseddia, the quick-growing, rainy-season sort, described by 
27821 : C 
