5^2 AGRICULTURE. 



Millet. Under this name five plants of differing genera, 

 which are cultivated for their seeds, are comprehended. They 

 are all true grasses. 



They are the common millet, Indian or grand millet, Guinea 

 corn, Bengal grass, or Italian millet, German millet. 



The first is most generally grown in the United States, the 

 others being rarely met with. The second and third belong 

 to the same family as broom corn (Sorghum saccaratuni). In 

 other countries they are used as food for men and animals, and 

 the straw or stalks as fodder. 



The Indian millet furnishes the bread of the Arabians and 

 other people of the East, as well as those of Africa. It is also 

 eaten in Italy, Spain, South of Germany, and the West Indies. 

 It matures perfectly in the neighborhood of Detroit. In its 

 mode of growth it resembles Indian corn, but the seeds are dif- 

 ferent. In this country it is scarcely worth cultivating except 

 as a curiosity, as it requires the same labor as corn, while its 

 produce is smaller and of an inferior quality. 



Potato. This well-known and most useful esculent belongs 

 to the botanical family of Solanece, or the nightshade tribe, of 

 which many of the species are poisonous. The potato itself, in 

 an uncooked state, is, to a certain extent, injurious to human 

 beings ; and if kept till spring, in a dark place, a new chemical 

 alkaline principle called Solanine is formed in the shoots, which 

 is a powerful poison. It is a native of South America, and is 

 still found wild in Chili. 



In 1545, a slave merchant, John Hawkins, introduced the 

 potato from New Grenada into Ireland. From Ireland the plant 

 passed to Belgium, in 1 590. It was neglected in England till in- 

 troduced by Sir Walter Raleigh, in the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century ; and was not in general cultivation in Scotland 

 till near the end of the eighteenth century. When the potato 

 came from Virginia into England for the second time, it was 

 already disseminated over Spain and Italy. It has been ascer- 

 tained that this root has been cultivated on a great scale in 

 Lancashire, England, since 1684; in Saxony, since 1717; in 

 Prussia, in 1738. In 1710, it began to spread in Germany, but 

 the famines of 1771 and 1772 seemed necessary to lead the Ger- 

 mans to cultivate it upon the great scale. In less than two cen- 



