No. 144.] 595 



It is sometimes cut green for soiling cattle and mules; and' if 

 properly done, so as not to injure the buds near the ground, it 

 may be cut several times in a season. It is also cured and made 

 into fodder, or hay. When intended for fodder, it is pulled and 

 «ured like the stalks of Indian corn The ears are cut as they 

 ripen, and are preserved for seed, or fed to stock. The stalks are 

 cut after the seed ripens, in Sept. and Oct., and fed to animals. 

 The ears are eaten entirely by cattle and hogs. The stalks are 

 sometimes cut before frost and put into barns, and then fed to 

 stock. They remain green for months, and do not ferment or 

 spoil as soon as Indian corn and other grains. The planters, after 

 gathering their seed, and curing as much as they desire of it, in 

 September or October, turn all their stock into the fields to feed. 

 No further care of them is necessary, except to salt and water 

 them. If the field is large enough, in a short time all will get fat 

 on it, and leave the ground covered from ankle to knee deep with 

 the stalks. Besides serving as food fi)r fowls and animals in 

 Egypt, India and China, it is used as food by the inhabitants. A 

 failure of this crop in Arabia would be as great a calamity as al- 

 most that of the wheat crop. It is their food and fuel, and grows 

 by scanty irrigation on land which produces scarcely any other 

 grain. It is ground into flour and cooked alone into cakes and 

 bread, or mixed with rice-flour and other food. In Germany it 

 is substituted for rice, and sells for about the same price. 



Taking into consideration the facts that it will yield more stalks, 

 fodder and grain, on a greater variety of soils, and with Ifss la- 

 bor, in any season, and returns more litter to the land than any 

 other grain, and being a universal food for man and beast, in tro- 

 pical climates, it maybe justly considered one of the most valua- 

 ble of the cerealia. There is a diversity of opinion whether this 

 plant exhausts the land. As broom corn is considered as exhaust- 

 ing, so may this be. It decays very slowly, requiring a year to 

 do so if allowed to remain on the surface. Turned under with 

 the plough it decays much sooner, and, no doubt, if previously 

 limed, it would i-ot much sooner, and be as valuable manure. 



