CUMBOO OR SPIKED MILLET. 



341 



Paniciim colonim, Lin. ; OpUsmeniis colonus, Beauv. — This small 

 grain millet, which grows wild in parts of India in sufficient plenty, 

 is collected in times of scarcity to be employed as food. 



Sawa Millet [Oplismenus frumentaceus, Kunth. ; Panicum fru- 

 mentaceum, Eoxb.) — This plant is much less cultivated in India than 

 P. miliaceum. It delights in a light, tolerably dryish soil ; the same 

 ground, according to Dr. Eoxburgh, yields two crops, between the 

 first of the rains in J une and July and the end of January. The seed 

 is wholesome and nourishing ; it is an article of diet amongst the 

 lower classes of the natives ; and yields about fifty-fold in a good soil. 

 The seed is light, and easy of digestion ; it makes very palatable 

 puddings, which children appear more partial to than those made of 

 rice, to which grain, when boiled, it bears a striking resemblance, 

 both in taste and appearance. 



CuMBOo or Spiked Millet (Pemcillaria spicata, Swartz ; Pennisetum 

 typhoideum, TUch..; Holciis sjpicatus, Lin.; Panicum spicatim^ Roxb.). — 

 Terminal cylindric spike erect, as thick as a man's thumb, from 6 to 

 9 inches long ; seed obovate, pearl-coloured, smooth, with hilum. 



This plant yields in India about 668 lbs. of seed, and 3 tons of 

 straw per acre. In some localities the grain is called bajra or 

 bajree, and with the usual adjuncts of a little milk, &c., forms the 

 chief article of diet of a very large number. 



Compared with rice, it is considerably more nutritious, containing 

 about lOJ per cent, of gluten, and giving a proportion between the 

 carbonaceous and nitrogenous compounds of from 7 to 7J per cent, of 

 the former to one of the latter ; whereas the kind of rice most rich in 

 gluten contains only about 8^ per cent, of that substance, and gives 

 the proportion of a little more than 9 of the non-nitrogenous to the 

 nitrogenous, thus involving the addition of a large quantity of some 

 pulse or extra nitrogenous substance to maize, — the proportion 

 between the flesh forming and heat and fat yielding constituents. It 

 is this grain which is chiefly used for the Couscoussou of Northern 

 Africa. It is known by the French as DehlcelS, and a report recently 

 presented to the Agricultural Society of Bouches du Rhone recom- 

 mends its culture in the Landes and Pyrenees. In certain districts 

 it rises to the height of 9 or 10 feet. The seed may be planted in 

 the close of April. In September or October the seed-spikes ripen ; 

 the stalks, chopped, may be fed to cattle. With the decorticated pith 

 of the stalk a pleasant beer can be made by the addition of hops. 



This grain is, fr-om the shape of its seed-spikes, called candle 

 millet. It is the " benitche " of the Arabs of Africa. The spiked 

 millet is as common in Africa as in Asia, at a distance beariDg some 

 resemblance to our indigenous cat's-tail grass, or Timothy, in the form 

 and size of its spikes. Many stems often proceed from the same root, 

 and these are from 3 to 6 feet in height. The fruit-spike is dense, 

 comj)act, and thicker than a man's thumb, from 6 to 9 inches in length 

 in India, or twice as long as it grows in Africa. Except Sorghum this 

 is the most commonly cultivated grain in India. 



Roxburgh says that it is sown about the beginning of the rains, 



