27 



Panicum miliaceum. 



This is the millet grass of India, or at least one of the Indian millets. 

 It has, in Asia, been cultivated for ages, and is, in many pans, an 

 important article in the food supply of the natives. It is also cultivated 

 in Egypt, Turkey, and Southern Europe. It has been cultivated to a 

 limited extent in this country for forage, and will thrive and ripen in 

 the Northern as well as the Southern States. 



Mr. Charles L. Flint says : 



Millet 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 iiud much 

 relished by milch cows and other stock. The seed is rich in nutritive qualities, Imt 

 it is very seldom ground or used for flour, though it is said to exceed all other kind-i 

 of meal or Hour in nutritive elements. An acre well cultivated will yield from (JO 

 to 70 bushels of seed. Cut in the blossoms, ;is it should be for feeding to cattle, the 

 seed is comparatively valueless. If allowed to ripen its seed, the stalk is no more 

 nutritious, probably, than oat straw. It is well adapted to culture in dry regioua. 



(Plate 13.) 



x 



Panicum Crus-galli (Barnyard Grass). 



This is an annual grass, with thick, stout culms usually from 2 to 4 

 feet high. In the Southern States it is often employed, and is consid- 

 ered a valuable grass. Professor Phares, of Mississippi, says : 



In that and some other States it is in-owed annually, and is said sometimes to fur- 

 nish four or five tons of hay per acre. It annually reseeds the ground and requires 

 no cultivation or other care, save protection from stock and the labor of harvesting. 

 In one county in Mississippi hundreds of acres are annually mowed on single farms. 

 Cows and horses are very fond of it whether green or dry. 



Iii the Northern States it is seldom employed. (Plate 14.) 



Panicum sanguinale (Crab Grass). 



This is an annual grass, which, although a native of the Old Worlu, 

 has become spread over most parts of this country, and indeed over all 

 tropical countries. It is the most common crab grass of the Southern 

 States. It occurs in cultivated and waste grounds, and grows very 

 rapidly during the hot summer months. The culms usually rise to the 

 height of 2 or 3 feet, and at the summit have from three to six slender 

 flower spikes, each from 4 to 6 inches long. The culms are bent at t he 

 lower joints, where they frequently take root. At the New Orleans 

 Exposition there were specimens of this grass 5 feet 10 inches long. 



Professor Killebrew, of Tennessee, says : 



It is a fine pasture grass j although it has but few base leaves and forms no sward, 

 yet it sends out numerous stems or branches at the base. It serves a most useful 

 purpose in stock husbandry. It fills all our corn-fields and many persons pull it out, 

 which is a tedious process. It makes a sweet hay, and horses are exceedingly fond of 

 it, leaving the best hay to eat it. 



Professor Phares, of Mississippi, says that the corn and cotton iields 

 are often so overrun with it that the hay which might be secured would 

 be more valuable than the original crop. It is sometimes mowed from 

 between the rows, sometimes cut across the ridges, with the corn. 



