210 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ANOTHER MAN'S EXPERIENCE AND OPINION OF 

 MILLET. 



Mr. Thomas B. Lord says : I have raised millet for the last five 

 years, chiefly for experiment. Having become convinced of its 

 value, I last year sowed twelve acres; an acre or two was too wet, 

 and produced nothing; the remainder was a good crop, and 

 yielded twenty-two bushels of seed and three or four tons of straw 

 to the acre. My experience has proved that it would yield from 

 twenty to twenty-five bushels of seed and three to four tons of 

 straw per acre. The seed is worth nearly as much as corn to 

 feed. The straw is worth, after threshing, about two-thirds as 

 much as timothy hay, is eaten by cattle or sheep more readily 

 than hay, and if passed through a straw cutter I think it would 

 be fully equal to it. I fed a flock of sheep last winter on millet 

 straw after threshing, without grain — a part of which flock I 

 sold in February, and a part recently, for the butcher. I have 

 also fed it to milch cows with good success, the butter being 

 nearly as yellow as when they run to grass. 



The soil best adapted to millet is a moist muck, but it will do 

 nearly if not equally as well, on sward or stubble. Time of 

 sowing, last of May or first of June. Quantity of seed, if de- 

 signed to ripen, twelve quarts per acre; if designed to be cut for 

 fodder before ripening, I would sow half a bushel. It may be 

 cut with a grass scythe, and cured like hay, or with a cradle (if 

 the fingers are w^ell secured,) and after laying a day or two, 

 bound and set in stooks. 



One of my neighbors raised last season thirty bushels per acre, 

 and fed the straw to his cattle and some young horses. He in- 

 formed me the other day that he never raised a crop which did 

 him as much good as his millet. Another neighbor has raised it 

 for tAvo years and fed it to his horses, and he tells me that his 

 horses would perform the same work with half the grain that they 

 did when fed on hay. A year ago last August, not having pas- 

 ture, I fed green millet to my working oxen during seeding time. 

 They ate it more readily than green corn stalks, and If ss than 

 half the ground would supply them. They worked hard and 

 gained flesh. 



CONVERSATION ON THE SUBJECT OF SOILING STOCK. 



Adrian Bergen of Long Island, preferred that his cattle should 

 roam, they were better for liberty, exercise, &c., but admitted 

 that small farms and other relative circumstances w^ould doubt- 

 less render soiling of stock most profitable. 



