COMMON MILLET. 37 



It has its highest nutritive value when in bloom; after that the 

 quaHty of the hay deteriorates rapidly. When sown for hay or 

 pasture, thirty pounds of seed should be used per acre; when grown 

 for seed, twenty pounds are sufficient. 



Seed: The seeds of Common Millet are considerably larger than 

 those of the Foxtail Millets. They are about one-eighth of an inch 

 long, ovate, somewhat flattened, with the outer side more convex 

 than the inner, shiny and differently coloured in different varieties. 

 The ordinary colours are white, red, yellow, brown, grey and black. 

 The seed of Japanese Panicle Millet, which is the most widely 

 grown variety of Common Millet in Canada, weighs sixty pounds 

 to the bushel. 



Even though the earth lie waste and barren, it may still declare its nature; since a soil productive 

 of beautiful wild fruits can by careful tending be made to yield fruits of the cultivated kind as beau- 

 tiful. — Xenophon, The Economist. 434-355 B.C. 



Many persons, for the more effectual protection of millet, recommend that a bramble-frog should 

 be carried at night round the field before the hoeing is done, and then buried in an earthen vessel in 

 the middle of it. If this is done, they say, neither sparrows nor worms will attack the crop. The 

 frog, however, must be disinterred before the millet is cut; for if this is neglected, the produce will 

 be bitter. It is pretended, too, that all seeds which have been touched by the shoulders of a mole 

 are remarkably productive. — Pliny, Natural History, 23-79. 



Be suer of hay, and of provender some. 

 For labouring cattle, till pasture be come. 

 And if ye do mind, to have nothing to sterve. 

 Have one thing or other, for all things to serve. 



— Thomas Tusser, Fire Hurtdreth Pointes of Husbandrie, 1557- 



A soil that is blackish and rich under the entered ploughshare, and whose mould is loose and 



crumbling, for this we aim at in ploughing, is generally best for corn That land which 



exhales thin mists and flying vapour, and drinks in the moisture, and emits it at pleasure; and which, 

 always green, clothes itself with its own grass, and does not hurt the ploughshare with scurf and salt 



rust that, you will find by experience, to be both suitable for cattle and fitted for 



agriculture. — Virgil, Ceorgics, 37 B.C. 



It is a world also to see how manie strange hearbs. plants and annuall fruits are dailie brought 

 unto us from the Indies, Americans, Taprobane. Canarie lies, and all parts of the world: the which, 

 albeit that in respect of the constitutions of our bodies they doo not grow for us, because that God 

 hath bestowed sufficient commodities upon everie countric for hir owne necessitie ; yet for delectation 

 sake unto the eie, and their odoriferous savours unto the nose, they are to be cherished, and God to 

 be glorified also in them, because they are his good gifts, and created to doo man help and service. — 

 William Harrison. 1593- 



