8o FOOD-GRAINS OF* INDIA. 



GREAT MILLET OR GUINEA CORN. 

 Sorghum vulgare, Pers. 



Synonyms Holcus Sorghum (L.) ; Holcus bicolor (L.); Andropogon Sorghum 



(Brot). 

 Hind. Joar, Jawari, Janera, Jundri. Beng. Jowari. Punjab Jawar. Tamil 



Cholum. Telugu Jonna, Tella-Janular. 

 Sanskrit Ziir n a . 



The culms of this millet are erect, the panicles branched and 

 the grain enclosed in, but free from the hard shining outer 

 glumes. Generally the seed is sown from June or July to 

 September, and the crop cut in October or November up to 

 January. Three to six seers of seed are sown at the beginning 

 of the rains in rather elevated lands of a loamy or clayey kind. 

 Sometimes the minor pulses are sown with it. The yield of 

 grain amounts to 10 maunds, with 60 maunds of stems as 

 fodder if irrigation has been used. Without irrigation, the yield 

 is one-fifth less. To this yield must be added that of the 

 accompanying crop of pulse. Sometimes, as in the North-West 

 Provinces, Oudh, Punjab, joar is grown as cattle-fodder, having 

 been sown and irrigated before the rains and cut green, early 

 enough to make room for the succeeding cold- weather crop. It 

 is very extensively grown in Madras; in 1875-76, more than 4^ 

 million acres were under cholum. There are several well-marked 

 varieties of this Sorghum ; they differ chiefly in the form of the 

 panicle, which is sometimes dense and contracted, sometimes 

 made up of drooping branches, and sometimes has expanding 

 branches. 



COMPOSITION OF GREAT MILLET. 



The nutrient-ratio is here i : 8^, and the nutrient-value 86. 



