AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS. 107 



very hard, indigestible and very injurious, and the ripe seeds 

 will founder more promptly than corn and sometimes produce 

 diabetes, if mouldy and too freely used. If cut at the right stage 

 the whole plant is a safe and very valuable forage. Most peo- 

 ple delay cutting too long. 



It should be carefully and well dried. If suffered to mould, 

 or mildew, or ferment it will become almost worthless, and may 

 even become dangerously unwholesome for. animals. In Hun- 

 gary it is said to be preferred to everything else for feeding 

 horses. It is the Moha de Hongrie of France. For seed it is 

 better sown in drills ; for forage broadcast to prevent the stems 

 growing too large. In 1875, there was a mania for German 

 millet seed, which run them up to $20 a bushel in some locali- 

 ties. In "two years, as predicted, the seed in some localities fell 

 to fifty cents a bushel ; so many, not knowing how to manage 

 it were so sadly disappointed in their expectations of a crop and 

 its value. 



The German millet grown in Tennessee seems to be the best 

 variety ; the plant is larger and head much longer. It stands 

 drought well, waiting for rain, has a large quantity of succulent 

 leaves relished greatly by all farm stock, and is thought to con- 

 tain a larger proportion of nutritive matter than any of the 

 other so-called millets. For forage it should be sown broad- 

 cast, one bushel per acre. Thick seedings prevent the stems 

 from becoming too large and hard. For seed ten or twelve quarts 

 per acre in drills will suffice. It will grow from one to seven 

 feet high .according to the quality and condition of the land, and 

 yield from one-half to five tons per acre, with as great differen- 

 ces in the appearance of plants as in quantity of forage. 



For using alone for feeding working animals, I much prefer 

 it to corn, oats, or anything else. I have made many experi- 

 ments with many kinds of feed, but never found anything more 

 satisfactory than German millet alone fed for two months to 

 teams daily working. 



Another grass classed with the millets is treated on a subse- 

 quent page under the title Penicillaria ; and a fifth under the 

 name Panicum sanguinalej treated on page 88. This last' is the 

 Digitaria sanguinalis of some authors, the manna grass of the 

 Germans. It is sometimes cultivated in Poland for the grain 

 as a substitute for rice, etc., and hence called Polish millet. It 

 seems to thrive there under cultivation about as well as with us 

 in spite of attempts to exterminate it. It is not red or bloody in 

 appearance as might be inferred from its specific name and as 

 taught in some books. The name is said to have been founded 

 on a practice of idle, vicious boys in Germany thrusting the 

 spikes up the nostrils and thus causing a sanguineous flow. 



We have in the southern States six other uncultivated grasses 

 properly belonging with the Millets, and to the genus Setaria. 



