104 FARM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 
around the former habitations of the lake-dwellers of 
Europe. he date at which these people flourished is 
not known, but it was long before the dawn of history. 
Millet-seed seems to have constituted an important ar- 
ticle of diet with them, as it does to-day in many parts 
of Europe and Asia. In America the first of the above 
classes of millet is grown exclusively for hay; the 
broom-corn millets are grown both for hay and for 
grain, but the grain is used here only for stock feed. 
The distribution of millet hay production in the 
United States, according to the Census of 1900, is 
shown in Fig. 20. This map shows clearly that the 
millet region lies along the western border of the 
humid region, from Texas to the Canadian line. In 
Iowa, northern Missouri, northern Illinois, and south- 
ern Wisconsin the millet belt extends eastward into 
the humid region. Middle and eastern Tennessee con- 
stitute an island, so to speak. Millet is grown spar- 
ingly in nearly all parts of the country, but the acre- 
age is too small in most sections to appear on the map, 
which was constructed by placing one dot in each 
county having 500 to 1,500 acres, two dots in counties 
having 1,500 to 2,500 acres, and so on. 
There is apparently no reason why millet should 
be more largely grown in Wisconsin, Illinois, Ken- 
tucky, and Tennessee than in other parts of the tim- 
othy region. The large acreagein the belt of States 
from Texas to the Dakotas is readily understood. 
Millet is a short-season crop (particularly the variety 
known as common millet) which may be sown late in 
June and still produce a good crop of hay, even in the 
Dakotas. This region is more subject to crop failures 
