PEARL OR CAT TAIL MILhET—iPemiisetum /yplwideum)— (Annual 

 Hay Grass.) 



This is a hardy annual and may be cut two or three times during the 

 season. It grows usually to the height of six or eight feet. It has dense 

 heads, six to twelve inches long and a half inch or more in thickness. The 

 stalks are coarse and hard to cure. When cut before the stalks harden 

 and the seeds ripen it makes a vast quantity of forage that is readily eaten 

 by all herbivorous animals. It requires plenty of heat and a rich soil to 

 bring it to maturity. The experiment made with it on the Centennial 

 grounds in Nashville in 1897 proves that it is a vigorous grower, a gross 

 feeder and a princely looking grass, towering high above all other 

 grasses except sorghum and teosinte. The head resembles a mammoth 

 head of timothy. 



The hay is cured with difficulty, owing to its rankness and coarseness. 

 It requires a great deal of exposure to the sun or air before it can be 

 stored away with safety. It can be recommended as a forage plant on 

 the ground that it makes a large yield at a small cost. 



SOILS — The strongest soils only are adapted to the growth of this 

 rank feeder and even these should be heavily manured to secure the best 

 results. Plenty of moisture in the soil is required for its growth and for 

 that reason a dry sandy soil is unfit for its cultivation. A deep calcareous 

 loam or a rich alluvial soil is to be preferred. The rich lands in the loess 

 formation of West Tennessee, the fertile river bottoms of Middle and 

 East Tennessee and the deep soils of the central basin are all well suited 

 to its growth. The rich moist upland valleys of the highland rim deeply 

 plowed and heavily manured will yield large crops of it. 



Pearl millet does best when sown in drills eighteen inches apart. The 

 running of a cultivator or double shovel once between the rows is suf- 

 ficient cultivation to give it. It is a rapid grower and will overlap the 

 rows within three weeks after sowing. About one peck of seed when 

 drilled is sufficient to plant an acre; one bushel per acre is required w^hen 

 sown broadcast. It is a plant very sensitive to cold and it should not be 

 planted until all danger of frost has passed. 



Mr. P. Henderson, of New Jersey, gives an interesting account of 

 his experience with it, which is here condensed. He prepared the land 

 by applying ten tons of stable manure to the acre and then plowing it ten 

 inches deep. The seed was sown in drills eighteen inches apart on the 

 15th of May. After coming up a cultivator was run between the rows one 

 time which was all the cultivation it received. The first cutting was 

 made 46 days after planting. When cut it was seven feet high and covered 

 the whole ground. This cutting weighed green, gave a yield of thirty 

 tons to the acre; weighed after being dried, six and a half tons. The 

 second growth, which was of tropical luxuriance, started at once from the 

 stubble left three inches high at first cutting. The second cutting was 

 August loth, forty-five days from the first cutting. The height of this 

 was nine feet and it weighed at the rate of forty-five tons to the acre, 

 green, and eight tons dried. The third crop was cut October 1st. which 

 weighed ten tons green and one and a half tons dried. The cool weather 

 of autumn sensibly afTected its growth. The aggregate yield from one 



