The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-04-24
Pearl Millet,

Several of our readers have recently
inquired of us in regard to Hungarian
grass and millet. All we can saw from
personal experience is in regard TO the
German millet which we tried two
years ago, and found TO be wonderfully
prolific and readily taken by our horse
and COW with no bad effects. The fol-
lowing article on another variety of
millet, by Mr.. Henderson in the Amer
lean Agriculturist, will be read with in
terest. Pr ktf w
"P earl millet has been cultivated for
some years as a forage plant in some of
the Southern States as african canc.'
Egyptian millet,' Japan millet,' and
in some places as HORSE millet;' but
little was known of it at the North be-
fore last year, and then only in such
small quantities as to hardly allow of a
fair trial. From what we saw of it In
1877, we determined TO give it a
thorough trial last season. A piece of
good, strong loamy ground was pre-
pared as if for a beet or turnip crop,
by manuring with stable manure at the
rate of ten tons to the acre, blowing ten
inches deep and thoroughly narrowing.
The millet was then sown in drills
eighteen inches apart, at the rate of
eight quarts to the acre. We sowed on
the 18th day of May, about the date we
plant corn; in twelve days the plants
were up so that a cultivator could be
run between the rows, after which no
further culture was necessary, for the
growth became SO rapid and luxuriant
as to crowd down every weed that at
tempted to get a foothold. The first
cutting was made July 1,-forty-fivc
days after sowing; it was then seven
feet high, covering the whole ground,
and the crop, cut three inches above
the ground, weighed, green, at the rate
OF thirty tons per acre; this, when
dried, gave six and one-balf IONS per
acre as hay. After cutting, a second
growth started, and was cut August Is,
forty-five days from the time of first
cutting. Its height was nine feet, il
weighed this time at the rate of fifty
five tons to the acre, green, and eight
tons dried. The third crop started
as rapidly as the second, but the cool
September nights lessened its tropical
luxuriance, SO that this crop, which
was cut on October I, only weighed
ten tons, green, and one and a half
tons, dry. The growth was simply
enormous, thus: First crop in forty
five days gave thirty tons green, or six
and one-half tons dry; second crop, in
forty-five days gave flfty-five tons
green, or eight tons dry; third crop in
forty-five days gave ten tons green, or
one and one-half tons dry. The agore-
gate weight being ninety-fiyc tons of
green fodder in one hundred and thirty
five days from date of sowing, and six
teen tons when dried to hay. This ex-
ceeds the clover meadows of Mid-Lothi-
an, which, when irrigated by the sew
age from the city of Edinburg and cut
every four weeks, gave an aggregate
OF seventy-five tons of green clover per
acre. There is little doubt that pearl
millet is equally as nutritious as corn
fodder, which IL resembles even more
Than IL does any of the other millets.
We found that all our horses and cattle
ate 1t greedily, whether green or dry.
III sowing in drills is not practicable, it
may be sown broadcast, using double
the quantity of seed-say sixteen quarts
per acre. The ground should be
smoothed by the harrow, and again
lightly narrowed after sowing; ifrolIed
after narrowing, all the better. know
OF no farm crop that will better repay
high m~anuring, but so great is it's luxu-
rance that it will produce a better
crop without manure than any other
plant l know of. In those parts of the
Southern States where hay cannot be
raised, this is a substitute of the easiest
culture, and being of tropical origin, il
will %luxuriate in their long hot sum.
mers. Even though our Northern sea-
sons may be too short to mature the
seeds, Il experiment in New JERSEY
last summer shows what abundant
crops may be expected If the similar
are secured. Pearl milIet as
a fodder-plant presents a new feature
in Il agriculture, and | feel sure that
within ten years we shall wonder how
we ever got on without It. Besides our
own testimony given above, we have
received the most satisfactory letters
from experienced men in different
parts of the country, to whom we sent
seed of pearl millet for trial, and all are
unanimous as to its enormous produc-
tiveness and great value. From all we
have seen and can learn, we are fully
convinced that pearl millet is to be one
the great fodder-plants of the fu-
+. IT, "