THE GRAMINE^. 



229 



a. Italiaa Millet, b. Pannioled Millet. 



by each ear or pannicle. From tWs great num- 

 ber of grains, amounting to a thousand {milk,') 

 tlie name of the plant is supposed to be derived. 



The Italian millet is without doubt a native 

 of India, where it is called congue. The stalk is a 

 jointed reed, with a long, broad, amplexial leaf, 

 proceeding from each joint. It is in height about 

 three or four feet, and terminates in a compact 

 spike of an oval form, about nine inches long. 

 The numerous grains adhere but slightly to the 

 husks, and are easily sliakeu out; the seeds are of 

 various colours. The Italians make a sort of 

 coarse brown bread from the flour of these seeds; 

 but the principal use of them is for feeding poul- 

 try. The leaves and stalks are used as fodder for 

 cattle, and are also made into brushes. The 

 German variety of millet, Sitaria Germanica, is 

 similar to the Italian, but rather more diminu- 

 tive. 



Sorghum nilgare, or pannicled millet, (fig. 5.) 

 goes under different names in the different coun- 

 tries where it is cultivated. In India it is 

 called jovaree; in Egypt and Nubia dhonrra; 

 while in our West Indian colonies it has received 

 the name of Guinea corn, either because the seed 

 was first conveyed thither from the western 

 coast of Africa, or, as some persons have affirmed, 

 because of its extensive use in feeding the Afri- 

 can negroes throughout those colonies. The 

 height to which this plant attains varies accord- 

 ing to the soil and culture. In Egypt its growth 

 seldom exceeds five or six feet, while Burck- 

 hardt speaks of the stalks of dhourra as being 

 sixteen or twenty feet long. The leaves are 

 thirty inches long, and two inches wide in the 

 broadest part. The flowers, when they first 

 come out in large panicles at the top of the stalk, 

 resemble the male spikes of the maize plant. 

 These flowers are succeeded by roundish seeds, 

 the colour of which is, in some cases, a milky 



white, with a black umbilical dot ; in others the 

 seeds are red, but in both cases they are wrapped 

 round with the chaff, and are better protected 

 from feathered depredators than other kinds of 

 millet. 



This grain was introduced into cultivation in 

 Switzerland about the middle of the last century 

 by M. Tschiffeli, who i c ceived ahout a spoonful 

 of the seed from Dr Schreber. M. Tschiffeli 

 published an account of his method of cultiva- 

 tion in the Transactions of the Berne Society ; 

 some extracts from which paper will suflice to 

 show the capabilities of this grain when cultiva- 

 ted in northern latitudes. Among the advanta- 

 ges which it offers are stated, its adaptation to 

 all sorts of soils, the small quantity of manure 

 which it requires, the trifling amount of laboui 

 for which it calls, and the small degree of ex- 

 haustion which it occasions to the soil in com- 

 parison with the largeness of the return which 

 it yields. 



M. Tschiffeli sowed his first seed in the month 

 of May, on a gravelly soil exposed to the north 

 wind, and which the year before had borne a 

 very indifferent crop of bigg. The seed was 

 spread very thin, and to this circumstance he 

 attributed the fact that the stalks rose to the 

 lieight of eight feet and upwards. The ears 

 were above ten inches long, and but for an in- 

 opportune shower of hail which destroyed half 

 the seed, the spoonful would probably have been 

 multiphed into a peck of grains. In May of the 

 following year, about a quart of seed was sown 

 upon a piece of ground twenty paces long and 

 half as broad, which space, it was soon apparent, 

 was fax too circumscribed for the quantity of 

 seed. The stalks came up very close, and were 

 interwoven with each other, reaching scarcely to 

 the height of five feet ; and the ears were much 

 smaller than those of the preceding year. The 

 produce, however, was seven pecks, or equival- 

 ent to fifty-six for one. In the next year, thirty 

 square rods of land were sowed with half a peck 

 of the seed. Here, again, the miUet came up far 

 too thick, being almost as much crowded from 

 its greater tillering, as it was in the preceding 

 year ; notwithstanding which, the produce was 

 so great, that twenty bushels were harvested, 

 being a return of one hundred and sixty for one, 

 and at the rate of more than one hundred bush- 

 els to the acre. M. Tschiffeli was of opinion that 

 ten pounds of seed would prove an ample allow- 

 ance for an acre of ground, and that greater 

 space being thus allowed for the individual 

 plants, the proportion between the quantities 

 sown and harvested would be still more favour- 

 able. It does not appear that millet has ever 

 been subjected to the system of drill husbandry, 

 although the results here given seem to point out 

 that system as being pecuharly applicable to its 

 cultivation. 



