AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS. 103 



sembling fulling-mills, which beat it with sticks or hammers. 



"Millet is well known to be a very nutritious grain ; in most 

 countries it forms an article of rice. Consequently its price 

 generally bears a relative proportion to that of rice. 



" Millet also is cultivated as fodder; it is then sown more 

 thickly, and mown as soon as its panicles are developed." Pp. 

 428-9. 



The three 'metzen' are equal to about three pecks, and contain 

 about the quantity of seed to sow per acre. This common mil- 

 let may be sown here any time from April 10th, to July, perhaps 

 later. None of the millets, indeed no other plants, receive so 

 much cultivation in this country as in Germany or Prussia. 

 Thaer's remarks on maturing and saving and preserving seeds are 

 specially valuable ; cmd if generally practiced, we should have better 

 stands, more vigorous, healthy growth, and larger, heavier, sounder 

 crops of all kinds. 



Prof. Flint says of this grass : "It is one of the best crops we 

 have for cutting and feeding green for soiling purposes, since 

 its yield is large, its luxuriant leaves juicy and tender, and 

 much relished by milch cows and other stock. 



"The seed is rich in nutritive qualities, but it is seldom ground 

 or used for flour, though it is said to exceed all other kinds of 

 meal or flour in nutritive elements. An acre well cultivated 

 will yield from sixty to seventy bushels of seed. Cut in the 

 blossom, as it should be, for feeding to cattle, the seed is com- 

 paratively valueless. If allowed to ripen its seed, the stalk is 

 no more nutritious, probably, than oat straw. 



"Millet requires a good soil, and is rather an exhausting crop, 

 but yields a produce valuable in proportion to the richness of 

 the soil, and care and expense of cultivation." 



The seeds weigk forty pounds to the bushel. 



22. P. GIBBUM, grows in low, wet lands. 



23. P. DIVARICATUM, Small Cane, found in the Gulf States. 

 Both perennial natives and perhaps one or two more of these 

 Panic grasses possess considerable value ; but they cannot be 

 cultivated profitably and need no special attention. 



THE MILLETS. 



Having made a caretul study of this subject, in 1877, in the 

 New Orleans Picayune, I published an account of many of the 

 plants that have received this name. I here present some ex- 

 tracts from that account which run through three numbers of 

 the Picayune. 



This word is so comprehensive, is applied to so many plants 

 widely differing both in appearance and botanical characters, 

 there is so much confusion in the use of the word, and the sub- 

 ject is so important that it will be proper, and even necessary, 



