268 



FIELD CROPS 



it is ground and bolted to remove the hulls, but this is hardly 

 necessary when the grain is fed to other animals. Buck- 

 wheat is also an excellent poultry feed. The straw is coarse 

 and stiff, so that it is of little value except as bedding or to 

 make manure. The buckwheat plant is a large producer of 

 honey, small fields often being sown for bee pasture. 



THE MILLETS 



335. Types of Millet. The term "millet" includes a 



number of very differ- 

 ent types of grasses, 

 though it is generally 

 applied in this coun- 

 try to two plants, the 

 foxtail millets, Chae- 

 tochloa italica, and the 

 broomcorn or hog mil- 

 lets, Panicum milia- 

 ceum. Both these 

 plants probably origi- 

 nated in southwestern 

 Asia, and have been 

 cultivated there since 

 very early times. 

 They have been used 

 as food plants for 

 many centuries, and 

 are still important 



Fig. 88. Heads of two types of broomcorn millet. ^ ems P* * o d in the 



interior of China and 



in other portions of Asia, as well as in Russia. The foxtail 

 millets are more generally grown in this country for forage 

 than for grain; they are more fully discussed in Sec. 433. 



