THE MILLETS 1 19 



ripe. It therefore reseeds the land, and does not need 

 to be sown. Its seed habits are such, in fact, that it 

 can hardly be handled as a domesticated grass, for it 

 is impracticable to harvest the seed. On account of 

 its large yield of most excellent hay it is not generally 

 considered a pest. The continuous cultivation of cot- 

 ton-fields prevents it from bothering in them. When 

 corn-lands have once become seeded to it a good crop 

 of hay can be secured late in summer every year after 

 the corn is harvested. Not infrequently a field, when 

 well seeded to Colorado grass, is left untouched till 

 late in May. It is then plowed and harrowed, and the 

 grass allowed to grow, making a fine crop of hay. It 

 is very leafy, the large, flat leaves resembling those of 

 the foxtail millets. Like them, it is hard to cure for 

 hay, but when well cured it is said to make hay pf 

 superior quality. This grass has been tried very gen- 

 erally over the South, but has gained little headway 

 except where it has spread as a weed. By recognizing 

 its essentially weedy character, and handling it accord- 

 ingly, it may be made a valuable adjunct to the hay- 

 producing plants on rich alluvial soils in the extreme 

 South. On suitable soils it easily displaces crab- grass, 

 but on light, dry soils it cannot cope with this less 

 useful and weedy grass. 



FEEDING VALUE OF MILLET HAY 



It is universally agreed that millet hay is highly 

 nutritious, and that it is eaten by all classes of stock 

 as readily as any other hay generally grown in this 

 country; in fact, many feeders state that stock prefer 

 it to timothy. For the past half century it has been 



