118 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



better protected from feathered depredators than other 

 kinds of millet. 



This grain was introduced into cultivation in 

 Switzerland about the middle of the last century by 

 M. Tschiffeli, who received about a spoonful of the 

 seed from Dr Schreber. M. Tschiffeli published 

 an account of his method of cultivation in the Trans- 

 actions of the Berne Society ; some extracts from 

 which paper will suffice to show the capabilities of 

 this grain when cultivated in northern latitudes. 

 Among the advantages which it offers are stated, its 

 adaptation to all sorts of soils, the small quantity of 

 manure which it requires, the trifling amount of labour 

 for which it calls, and the small degree of exhaustion 

 which it occasions to the soil, in comparison with the 

 largeness of the return which it yields. 



M. Tschiffeli sowed his first seed in the month of 

 May, on a gravelly soil exposed to the north wind, 

 and which the year before had borne a very indifferent 

 crop of bigg. The seed was spread very thin, and 

 to this circumstance he attributed the fact that the 

 stalks rose to the height of eight feet and upwards. 

 The ears were above ten inches long, and but for an 

 inopportune shower of hail which destroyed half the 

 seed, the spoonful would probably have been multi- 

 plied into a peck of grains. In May of the following 

 year, about a quart of seed was sown upon a piece of 

 ground twenty paces long and half as broad, which 

 space, it was soon apparent, was far too circumscribed 

 for the quantity of seed. The stalks came up very 

 close, and were interwoven with each other, reaching 

 scarcely to the height of five feet ; and the ears were 

 much smaller than those of the preceding year. The 

 produce, however, was seven pecks, or equivalent to 

 fifty-six for one. In the next year, thirty square rods 

 of land were sowed with half a peck of the seed. 



