150 BROOM CORN. 



INDIAN MILLET (Sorghum vulgare) is a cultivated 

 species, and has several well-marked varieties. It is 

 called Guinea corn in the West Indies, Dhourra in Ara- 

 bia, Jova'ree in India, and Nagara in the north of China. 

 It is sometimes used as a forage plant. 



The tall cereal, which has long been cultivated in the 

 south of Europe and in Barbary, under the general 

 name of sorghum, resembles Indian corn in quality, and 

 is often called small maize. Its stems contain a pretty 

 large per cent, of saccharine matter, and it is useful to 

 cut green as a forage plant. 



Indian millet, when raised on good soil and under 

 favorable circumstances, is said to yield a larger quan- 

 tity of seed to the acre than any other cereal grass 

 known, not excepting even Indian corn. Its nutritive 

 quality is nearly equal to that of wheat. The common 

 millet is the panicum miliaceum. 



BROOM CORN (Sorghum saccliaratum) is considered by 

 some botanists as a variety of Sorghum vulgare ; by 

 others, as a distinct species. Its leaves are linear; 

 ligules short and hairy; panicle with long, loose, expand- 

 ing branches. It is an annual, and flowers in August, 

 growing from six to nine feet high. Native of India. 



The panicles are used for brooms, and the seeds for 

 poultry, swine, <fec. It is extensively cultivated in many 

 parts of the country along the Connecticut River, in 

 Massachusetts, the Mohawk, in New York, and at the 

 West. It is said to have been first cultivated in this 

 country by Dr. Franklin, who found a seed on a stalk 

 in -the possession of a lady, and planted it. 



CHINESE SUGAR-CANE, SORGHO, or SORGHO SUCRE 

 (Sorghum nigrum), is a plant well known throughout the 

 United States. It rises with a stem from six to fifteen 

 feet high, according to the soil on which it grows, erect, 



