330 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Varieties of Millet (One-third Acre Each), 



varieties. 



Quantity of 

 Seed sown 

 (Quarts). 



Date of 

 Cutting. 



Yield of 



Hay 

 (Pounds). 



Hungarian grass, . 

 Japanese common millet, 

 Japanese broom corn millet, 

 Japanese barn-yard millet, 



H 



41 



Aug. 15, 

 Aug. 26, 

 Aus 1 . 15, 



1,730 

 2,025 

 2,410 



Aug. 15, 2,003 



The Japanese barn-yard millet in this trial also failed to 

 do its best on account of having been sown too thick for a 

 season so favorable for rank growth as was that of 1896. 



The Japanese millets require a longer season for growth 

 than common millets or Hungarian grass, and this is against 

 their use as catch-crops . The Japanese broom corn and the 

 Japanese common millets I consider rather too coarse to make 

 good hay. The Japanese barn-yard millet will make good hay 

 if it can be cured, but it is so succulent that it is extremely 

 difficult to cure and it is not to be recommended as a hay 

 crop. For green feed and to put into the silo it is, however, 

 most excellent. It may be either pastured or cut ; the lat- 

 ter I consider best. This millet is enormously productive. 

 Twenty tons per acre of green feed have often been produced 

 upon the college farm, while Geo. L. Clemence of South- 

 bridge reports a yield at the rate of thirty-five tons per acre. 

 As a crop for the silo this millet must be considered valua- 

 ble. It is more easily grown than corn and makes equally 

 good silage. For the largest crop it must be sown not later 

 than the end of May, although a crop amounting to twelve 

 tons of green feed per acre has been produced from a sowing 

 made as late as July 20. For green feed and for the silo, 

 upon all soils not too dry, this must be regarded as the most 

 valuable of the millets, while for making into hay Hungarian 

 grass is undoubtedly better. As green-manuring crops the 

 millets rank with the Hungarian grass. They have no qual- 

 ities especially recommending them for this use save that of 

 rapid growth. They are not nitrogen gatherers nor nitrogen 

 conservers. 



