596 THE farmers' handbook. 



Where irrigation is practised, it is essential to plant in suitably graded land 

 and convey the water by means of open drills between the rows. After 

 each application of water, and as soon as the nature of the soil will allow, the 

 soil must be well cultivated to prevent caking and to conserve moistux-e. 



Fertilisers. 



Experiments with fertilisers have shown little or no increase in yield 

 on good land, but some growers use 1 cwt. superphosphate per acre as a 

 means of encouraging quicker growth in the young plants. 



Harvesting. 



While it is admitted that the best-coloured and finest-textured brush is 

 obtained from the heads when the seed is immature, many farmers prefer to 

 wait until the seed is quite firm. The brush has then, of course, lost its 

 prime colour, and is a little inferior in quality ; but they maintain that in 

 normal seasons this quality sells quite as readily as the prime, and they have 

 the seed, which, since all poultry foodstuffs are dear, is in greater demand by 

 poultry -farmers than formerly. Besides making up for the reduced quality of 

 the brush, the value of the seed is sometimes sufficient to cover the harvesting 

 of the whole crop. 



The actual harvesting should be carried out in warm, dry weather ; other- 

 wise the whole season's work may go for nought. ' ' Tabling " is the first 

 operation. Millet harvesting, owing to the plants averaging anything from 

 10 to 14 feet in height, would be rather a strenuous undertaking were it not 

 for this. Hence it is that bending the plants over to bring the brush within 

 reasonable distance of the knife is practised. The former method of bending 

 in one or two places and bringing the brush to within a couple of feet of the 

 ground (heads hanging downward) has been superseded by a more rapid and 

 effective method ; two rows are bent at the one time, and placed diagonally 

 across each other, forming a latticed ta,ble about 3 feet from the ground. 

 The work is simplified if the operator faces the direction of tabling. He is 

 then in a position to accurately place the heads near the outside edges so 

 that they are easilv accessible for cutting. 



The final operation of cutting is carried out by walking along the passages 

 between the tables, and removing the head with about 6 inches of stalk, with 

 a butcher's or some other suitable knife. The sheath enclosing the stem is 

 removed at the same time. Beside hastening the process of drying, the 

 lemoval of the sheath allows the reddish discoloration to dry out better, and 

 it also deprives aphis of shelter. The heads are then placed in moderately 

 thin layers on the "table" to dry, which usually takes from thirty-six to 

 forty-eight hours according to the weather and the maturity of the crop. 

 They are finally carted to the shed and placed neatly 9 to 12 inches deep (or 

 more if advisable) on shelves. The crop is then ready for hackling. 



Hackling. 



The most widely-used hackler is a locally-produced hand machine with a 

 spiked drum. With the addition of extra fly-wheels, intermediates, and 

 other makeshifts, gas engines and horses have been used satisfactorily for 

 the driving power — considerably reducing the cost and saving time. At 

 least three " hands " are necessary for hackling — the feeder, an assistant who 

 arranges the bundles and hands them to the feeder (occasionally two are thus 

 employed), and a help, who keeps up the supply of brush, removes the cleaned 

 brush back to the shed, and clears the seed away from beneath the hackler. 



