CHAPTER XIV 

 MILLETS AND OTHER ANNUAL GRASSES 



THE millets furnish another example of a crop utilized 

 in the Old World for human food, but in America grown 

 only for forage. They are important mainly as short-sea- 

 son summer catch-crops, but their culture is diminishing 

 steadily. As hay producers they are far less important 

 than the small cereals, namely, oats, barley, wheat and 

 rye. 



The term millet has been used agriculturally with a 

 wide meaning, having been applied to about 10 species 

 of grasses belonging to the genera Setaria or Chcetochloa, 

 Panicum, Echinochloa, Pennisetum and sometimes others, 

 including Paspalum. The sorghums, too, have fre- 

 quently been called " giant millets." All the " millets " 

 are rapid-growing summer annuals. 



343. The principal millets are the following : 



Foxtail millet (Setaria italica), including the varieties 

 known as Common, German, Italian, Hungarian, Siberian 

 and many others. In Europe and America they are used 

 wholly as forage, but in other countries have been grown 

 for human food. * 



Broom-corn millet, Hog Millet or Proso (Panicum 

 miliaceum), cultivated in Russia and other countries as 

 human food and now grown to a considerable extent in 

 America, mainly as a cereal crop, though sometimes cut 



285 



