INDIAN MILLET OR GUINEA COEN. 



337 



60°. It will certainly grow in mucli colder climates, but scarcely 

 pays ex]Denses. This forms with rice the staple food of the Madras 

 Presidency, with rice and bajree that of the Bombay Presidency, and 

 with wheat that of the North-West Provinces, Oudh, the Punjaub, and 

 Central Provinces. 



This grain is universally cultivated, and is in fact in some parts 

 the princij)al support of man and beast. It will grow upon most 

 soils, but luxuriates in the black soil. There are several varieties, 

 but principally one with red seeds and one with white. Some botanists 

 recognize at least three species in cultivation, more or less extensively, 

 in India — S. vulgare, Pers. ; S. cernuum, Willd. ; and >S^. hicolor, 

 Moench ; whilst others regard them as mere varieties of the one 

 species, which is extensively grown over the world, and exhibits, like 

 all largely cultivated plants, a great tendency to variation. 



Dr. J. F. Watson gives the composition oi this seed as follows : 



Water 11-95 



Nitrogenous substances 8'6i 



Dextrine 3-82 



Sugar 1-46 



Fat 3-90 



Starch 70-23* 



* With husks. 



From an analysis of the half-grown plant raised in England, 

 Dr, Voelcker found that it contained above 2^ per cent, of flesh- 

 foiining matters, and about 11 per cent, of fat, or heat-producing 

 matters. The composition was : 



Water 85-17 



Flesh- forming matters 2-55 



Fat or heat-producing matters ,. ,. 11-14 



Inorganic matters 1-14 



Total 100-00 



There was little or no sugar in the half-grown plant, but when 

 three-quarters grown, there was as much as 5*85 per cent, of sugar 

 in the lower part of the stem. "We have no analysis of Indian grown 

 plants ; but it may be safely inferred, that if such a large amount of 

 sugar was present in plants grown in a climate so ill suited for the 

 production of sugar as England, a very much larger quantity would be 

 found in plants grown in the tropics. 



From experiments carried on in India with plants as fodder 

 producers, the following were found to be the results : 



Yellow Cholum, dry crop 



„ wet „ 



Chinese cane (Sorghum saccharatum)') 



dry crop / 



Cumboo, dry crop 



Weight of 

 Foddei- per 

 Acre. 



Days 

 reqiiired to 

 produce a 



Crop. 



lbs. 





10,000 



90 



12,000 



60 



20,000 



80 



15,000 



75 



z 



