20 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, (CEYLON BRANCH.) 



©ne-hundred-fold ; and the straw is considered to increase the yield 

 of milch cows. Choi am contains 9 38 per cent, of nitrogenous matter; 

 that is about the average in the series including this grain with 

 wheat, rice, raggi, aud cumbii. It is prepared like raggi into kill 

 kalli or bread ; and it is also cooked like rice, but the grains are not 

 detached. The whole mass forms a cake, which is eaten with curries 

 or other spiced preparations." 



The following is from the Dictionary of Hygiene and 

 Public Health, by A. Wynter Blyth and Professor Tardieu, 

 p. 178. 



" Dhurra, Dhoora, or Sorgho Grass (sorghum). Although 

 commonly called Indian millet, it belongs to a different tribe of 

 grasses from the true millets. Like rice, it is largely cultivated in 

 India, Algeria, the interior of Africa, and Egypt. The seeds here 

 are mostly used for feeding birds, but in India they are ground small 

 and made into cakes. This bread is said to have been issued to the 

 English troops in the last Chinese Expedition, It is described by 

 Johnston as being equal in nutritive value to the average of our 

 English wheats, but Letheby says that dhura is little more nutritious 

 than rice, for it contains on an average about 9 per cent, of nitroge- 

 nous matier, with 74 of starch, sugar, 26 fat, and 2*3 of mineral 

 matter. 



218. Zka Mays, Linn. Muwa-iringu, Sin. Mukka- 

 Cholam, Tarn. Indian Corn. Native of South America, and 

 now cultivated as extensively as the Sorghum over various parts 

 of the globe, 



Indian Corn from Dictionary of Hygiene, and Public 

 Health, by A. Wynter Blyth and Professor Tardieu, pp. 3 10-1 K 



"Indian com is largely eaten all over the world* but more 

 especially in tropical countries. 



" The ration for a Kafir servant is 3 pints of Indian-corn meal per 

 day, and on this scanty allowance— for he gets little else — he 

 manages to keep in good health. Indian corn has since 1846 — the 

 potato-famine year -been largely used in Ireland, It is stirred into 



