AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



147 



three tons per acre. After the millet was cut, the field was 

 stirred, and repeatedly harrowed, to destroy the after grovvth 

 of noxious plants. I intend to again sow rye, not only to 

 obtain pasturage, but to protect the soil from the exhalations 

 of the sun. In the succeeding spring, a slight dressing of 

 fresh manure was ploughed under ; the scarifier, roller, and 

 harrow were used at intervals as before. On the 5th of May, 

 five bushels of millet seeds were sown on four acres ; on the 

 5th of July the crop was hauled, and estimated at four tons 

 per acre. I have obtained this season forty tons from six- 

 teen acres, of which four only had been manured ; the re- 

 mainder could not have borne a good wheat crop. One of 

 the loads v/as weighed ; an account of them was regularly 

 kept ; their size was made as nearly equal as possible. I 

 have generally used a large quantity of seed, as not more 

 than two-thirds of that which is usually sown will vegetate. 

 Whilst my oxen consumed millet in its green state, they 

 performed their work with more spirit and vigor than they 

 had done before, or hav^e shown since, except when fed with 

 grain. My cattle, of all ages, prefer it to both red and the 

 best white clover, meadow, or timothy hay. 



I am not disposed to cultivate it as a farinaceous crop, 

 f'']re I have found great difficulty in protecting it from the 

 ravages of immense flocks of birds, which it attracts, and in 

 securing it sufficiently early to prevent a large part of the 

 grain from being left on the ground. The seeds on the up- 

 per parts of the stalks generally ripen and fall before those 

 below have been filled. I therefore invariably cut it when 

 the upper parts of most of the heads contain seeds which 

 are hard. All my observations have confirmed me in the 

 belief, that in this stage it affords fodder more nutritious, 

 and more easily made, than any sort of hay. The expense 

 of tilling the land, in the accurate manner which I have de- 

 tailed, is not so great as at first view would appear. A yoke 

 of good oxen can scarify three acres and a half, without 

 difficuiLy, in one day. I Avould recommend millet, not merely 

 for its value as a food, but for the means it affords of making 

 clean the land, without summer fallows, or drill crops. The 

 ingenious arguments which have been adduced to prove that 

 deep stirring between growing crops is advantageous to them 

 and the soil, are founded upon English experience, properly 

 directed by close attention to the effects of a moist climate. 

 Some of our writers have profoundly asserted, that as ' dew 



