Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-10
EAST INDIA MILLET-ANoTHER LETTER
FROM MR.. SANDERS.

| some months ago, IN which endeaVored TO
show the desirability of small farms, par
ticularly here on the rich lands of the val
ley in Fresno county, seemed to possess
one item that has gone, since that time,
to the uttermost parts of the earth, and to
have been very extensively read, and, gen.
orally, to have resulted in demand for
| further information on the same subject.
Everybody knows that the Chinese, East
Indiamen, and other people who follow
agriculture in the densely populated Te-
! gions of the earth like China and India, are
far better farmers thsn we are. The neces-
sity for such superiority is found chiefly
in the imperative demand for a greater
yield to supply food to the great excess of
like our own, wet and dry season. 1t
will thus be at once apparent to the think
ing mind that we can make valuable i'm
portations of seeds from those countries.
Through the kindness OF friend then in
Birma | obtained some seed of this millet
in 1877, part costing IS per pound. l
have tried 1t, as to growth, on both dry and
irrigated ground. 1t will yield one heavy
crop if it has only sufficient moisture in the
spring to cause the seeds to grow. By irri-
CATION it will outyield any other crop. [
planted drill of it beside ditch in rich
ground ; 1t soon spread foot in width,
and yielded during the 296 days of its
| growth, over 100 pounds of green tender
leaves and stalks to each square foot of
ground, or at the enormous rate of over
1000 tons of green fodder per acre. Many
stalks are over dozen feet high, and over
100 stalks from single seed is quite COM
mon where it is planted in hills. Like all
other plants long under cultivation, it now
consists of many varieties; different va
rieties being suited to differences of soil,
climate and length of season. None of
them, however, will mature seed in very
cold climate or very short season. The
most dwarf one that have tried requires
| IT'S days from time of planting to mature
its first crop of seed. But, as new heads
are constantly forming on suckers and
limbs from the joints, 1t will ripen an addi-
tional crop of seed every succeeding ten
days, until stopped by frost. Peter Hem
derson, an old and reliable market gardener
of New York city, raised an acre of one
variety of it for seed during the summer of
1877. He publishes an account of it on
page 420 of the November number of the
american AgricaHurist of that year. He
says:
1.-The millet was sown in drills eighteen
inches apart--eight quarts to the acre-on
the 18th of May. The first cutting
was made July LIST, forty-fve days after
sowing; it was then seven feet high, COW
ering the whole ground. The crop weighed
green thirty tons per acre; when dried
six and half of hay per acre. After cut
ting second growth started and was cut
August 18th, forty five days from the time
of the first cutting. Its hight was niRe
feet; weight fifty-five tons per acre green );
eight tons dried. The third crop started
as rapidly as the second, but the cool Sep
TENDER nights lessened its tropical luxuri-
ance, so that this crop, which was cut on
October LIST, only weighed ten tons green
and one and half tons dried. The
aggregate weight was ninety-fve tons of
green fodder in 135 days from the time of
sowing, and sixteen tons when dried to
hay. There is little doubt that the
pearl millet is equally as nutritious as corn
fodder, which it resembles even more than
it does any of the other millets. We found
that all our horses and cattle ate it greed
lily, whether green or dry. Though
our Northern seasons are too short to ma
ture the seeds, our experiments show what
abundant crops may be expected. 1t pre-
sents new feature in our agriculture, and
| feel sure that within ten years We shall
wonder how we ever got on without it,
In Moore'S Rural Ne1o Yorker of Novem-
her I'd full-page illustration is given of
a bunch grown from single seed The
editor says in describing it
MANY of the stems were nearly of the
same hight, the highest being ten feet one
inch. Three feet from the ground the cir
conference was thirteen feet nine inches.
There were ffty-two stalks, the
weight of which was forty-two and one
half pounds"
In addition to the seed obtained from
India referred to above, l obtained seed
from every place of its growth in our own
country. But none of 1t grew as well or
gave as good satisfaction as that imported
from dry, hot, interior Asia. That, and
our longer season-more than twice as long
as that in which Mr.. Henderson raised his
will account probably for any superior sue
cess. Here, perfectly adapted as it is to
our soil and climate, it will make dense
growth four feet in hight, heavy enough to
be cut for hay every eighty days, or in one
of our longest seasons it can be cut ten
times during the year. Its new growth
comes as naturally and quickly as does al
falfa after cutting. have it growing with
alfalfa in my pasture My stock are never
troubled with bloat. My neighbors are
loosing valuable animals from that cause,
while mine are exempt. | never attributed
it to this additional forage until the other
day, when a neighbor, who had just lost
two valuable cows, came to me for seed,
saying / have watched this matter for
a couple of years, and | shall never let my
stock eat alfalfa alone another year. Mil
| let saves your stock, and l know it will
save any stock that have ever so little III
their pasture" The roots of milet are not
reliably perennial. Some have lived over
winter, but most of them have been killed
by frost. know very little of the range
OF soil in which it can be successfully
grown. 1t has not yet been tested over
sufficient area of country. Our soil is of
| light loan. 1t grows to perfection here.
! Wherever | may live in future | shall GER
tainly try to raise it. | would like to see
it tried in every variety of soil and climate
in our State and the results of its growth
reported in the RECORD UNION and sup
Elemental to this wish / will, in answer to
dozens OF inquiries, give my directions for
its culture Don't pillow your ground for this
crop till weeds have made a good growth
and the ground has become warm in the
early spring then pillow deep and harrow
thoroughly this will keep back the weeds,
which is necessary, as it makes but feeble
growth for some time. Then while the
ground is yet moist from narrowing, mark
off in shallow furrows-usinga corn marker
80 as to make them but two or three
inches deep; make them three feet apart
drop the seed at once, about a foot apart,
in the drills, and cover with pulverized
earth Immediately, narrowing lengthwise
OF the drills or burrows. Two pounds of
seed is sufficient for an acre. These direc-
tions are to grow it for seed or cut-up fod-
der. For pasture or hay SOW twice as
thick, in drills one foot apart; or SOW
= l.. I e L !