110 FARM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



acres. Seed grown in this manner is usually plumper 

 and of better appearance than seed from thicker sow- 

 ing. It is especially recommended to sow in rows and 

 cultivate when growing millet on poor and weedy soil. 

 New land is preferred for seed growing because of the 

 absence of weeds. In the case of the broom-corn 

 millets, the seed of which is considerably larger than 

 that of the foxtail varieties, about three pecks of seed 

 is used, either for hay or for seed production. While 

 the seed of German millet is smaller than common 

 millet and Hungarian grass-seed, that variety does not 

 stool out so much as the other two just mentioned, and 

 for this reason the larger number of seeds in a given 

 volume gives no thicker stand of German millet than 

 the smaller number contained in the same volume of 

 common millet and Hungarian grass. 



When grown for seed, millet may be cut with an 

 ordinary twine-binder, and threshed the same as wheat, 

 using, of course, finer riddles and less draft. The yield 

 of seed is ordinarily from twenty to forty bushels per 

 acre, though yields of eighty or more bushels have 

 been obtained on good soil in favorable seasons. Ac- 

 cording to Professor Crozier, the average yield in 

 twenty-seven counties in Iowa in the year 1889 was 

 ^twenty-seven bushels. In the seed trade Hungarian 

 grass-seed is bought and sold on a basis of 48 Ibs. to 

 the bushel, while 50 Ibs. is considered a bushel of com- 

 mon and German millet. The legal weight of all three 

 varieties is 50 Ibs. per bushel in most of the States that 

 have legislated on the subject. 



Millet seed is excellent feed for all kinds of stock, 

 but the price is usually too high to justify its use for 



