S FOOD FOR THE TROPICS 



Bulrush Millet 



(Pennisetum typho ide um) 



A native of tropical Asia, Nubia, and Egypt ; Dr. Watt 

 says it is indigenous to the plains of India, where the 

 Hindustani name for it is " Bajra." It is cultivated in the 

 same area with Guinea Corn as a rainy-season crop in 

 North-West, Central, and South India, but more especially 

 in Bombay (4,000,000 acres) and Madras (2,500,000 acres). 

 It is also grown in Spanish America, where, I believe, it is 

 called Milho Pequeno ; and on the coast of West Africa 

 from Senegal to the Gold Coast. 



It is called Gussub (Sahara, Soudan, and Bornou) ; 

 Herneh (Nubia) ; Dokhn (Arabic) ; Gantelu, etc. (Telegu) ; 

 Mattari (Malay) ; Kambu (Tamil) ; Matesi (Nyassaland, 

 E. Africa) ; Gero (Somaliland, E. Africa) ; and Mansaroke 

 (Portuguese West Africa). 



jMillet grows best on rather dry sandy soil, and requires 

 perhaps less rain than Guinea Corn ; it suffers from damp 

 and rainy weather when in flower. The cultivation is 

 similar to Guinea Corn, and there are often fifteen hundred 

 seeds on one spike. 



Eor food the seeds with husks are well pounded in deep 

 wooden mortars, and cleared of husks by repeatedly pouring 

 sifted portions from one calabash to another at a sufficient 

 height to enable the wind to get at it. The grain minus 

 the husk is then returned to the mortars and beaten into 

 soft flour, or sometimes ground to fine flour between two 

 stones, and made into a kind of bread. Cleared of husks, 

 pounded, and made into a paste in which a little meloheia 



