476 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FAKM. 



Indian corn meal mixed with cheese and baked into a kind of 

 pudding, forms the dish called by the Italians " polenta." The 

 substance sold in the London shops under the name of polenta 

 is the meal of Indian corn. Poultry are very fond of, and 

 thrive well on, Indian corn ; and in Austria horses are fed on 

 it, after it has been steeped for a time in water. 



Panicum miliaceutn, millet. The Milium effusum, or 

 millet-grass, has been already spoken of among the forage- 

 grasses (p. 445). Its seeds, which are produced in great abun- 

 dance, form an agreeable food for young pheasants and other 

 granivorous fowls. But the millet-grass (Milium effusum) is to 

 be distinguished from the cereals which pass under the name 

 of millet. These are the Panicum miliaceum, the Sorghum 

 vulgare (Holcus sorghum), the Sorghum saccharatum, Sor- 

 ghum spicatum, the Sorghum halepense. These several kinds 

 of millet are usually confounded together. Of the Panicum 

 miliaceum there are two varieties, the brown and the yellow. 

 They are sometimes cultivated in this country for feeding 

 poultry, or, after the husk has been removed, to be used as 

 a substitute for rice. But for either purpose they are more 

 profitably imported from the shores of the Mediterranean, 

 where they are grown in great abundance. The Sorghum vul- 

 gare (formerly Holcus sorghum) is much cultivated in Arabia 

 and most parts of Asia Minor. It has been introduced into 

 Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and some parts of Germany ; also 

 into China, Cochin-China, and the West Indies, where it 

 grows five or six feet high or more, and being esteemed a 

 good food for labourers, it is called negro guinea-corn. In 

 Britain the seeds seldom ripen well in the fields, unless the 

 autumn be particularly dry and warm. In Arabia it is called 

 dora, or durra. The flour is very white, and it makes good 

 bread. In Italy the millet bread is generally dark and coarse. 

 In Tuscany it is used chiefly for feeding poultry and pigeons ; 



