The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-09-03
MiIlet

My success with millet has been so
marked within few years that have
practically abandoned my meadows for
securing winter feed, and am cropping
them to grain, alternating with millet,
so that now secure my crops of grain
and the hay for my stock from my once
meadow-land, without cutting down
either the amount of my pasture land or
the number of my cattle and other
stock. In raising millet | have substi-
tuted it for oats. The latter am con-
WINGED l cannot afford to raise, taking
one wear with another.
For years | had sown the variety
known as Hungarian grass; but am
convinced that German millet is its SUI
perior, and now sow it instead, and with
two or three acres of corn | find that
about five acres of.milIet will abundant
" winter my stock, consisting of twen-
ty head of cattle and a span of horses
that being the sum total of my fodder
last fall, and have NOW of it sum-
mering over, although fed my dairy
all they would eat of it far into May
1t is often urged in objection that it is
very exhausting crop, and is also very
hard to cure, both of which / dissent
from. The cutting of millet should be
in the blossoming stage, when it is at
its height of value as hay, and its fra
GRANGE will be permanent, and will be
very pleasant as it is thrown down from
the NOW. For young stock it is excel
lent, and, after wintering my work
team exclusively upon it for
some five years, | prefer it to
any hay, while for mich COWS early-cut
and well-cured millet is the equal of the
best clover hay, with an addition of
shorts and meal. 1t is an excellent
crop to follow corn, and l know of no
crop that precedes wheat so perfectly,
leaving Gas it does) the ground mellow
and easily fitted for the seed-bed of the
wheat; and, as far as my observation
goes, wheat sown upon underground
shows more vigorous growth than
that which was sown upon playground.
A neighbor of mine, heretofore doubt
full upon this point, now admits that the
difference in his wheat crop is one-third
in favor of the millet-stubble. would
not make that distinction. but claim
decided difference.
The cutting of millet is an operation
that requires judgment, for some skill
is necessary to prevent undue labor.
The last days of August generally fur
nish dry spell, that / take advantage
of to cut my millet; but the damage of a
shower is not so great as that done to
other grass by like accident. My plan
had always been to make a great deal
of labor in connection with curing mil
let; but last year | cut one day, raked
it into windows the second, and the
third / cooked it up into as large cocks
as could make, let them remain about
ten days, when drew them into the barn,
without once pitching them over to take
the air. and brighter, sweeter hay |
never saw. In some way | had also
got the impression that millet kept the
best in small, sharp-pointed stacks; but
last year drew it all into the barn,
twenty-six big loads, and filled the big
bay, crowded the long scaffold full,
fioored over half the driveway of the
barn floor and put four loads up there,
and then built respectable stack out
of doors from a possible five acres
1t would be impossible for hay to keep
better in the NOW than did that millet,
anu AOW HlluiJ bollcNc IHdU bue DlO
mows Of the barn are the places to store
it. The growth of that millet was ex-
traordinary. A full bushel of seed was
sown to the acre, as much finer hay
will be secured than by thinner sowing;
though, if seed is wanted, half bushel
would be ample. The height of the
stocks was about six feet and the entire
lot would average over five, and when
moving it was only now and then that
glimpse could be caught of the team
across the field, as they were going
around the lot.
In wet weather dare say that the
cocks would have to be turned out and
again punched, to prevent holding;
but, if nothing more than dash of rain
should come, [ should not Judge it nee
essary to turn out and recock more than
once, as the handling and pitching of
loading and carting it is great aid in
freeing it of any remaining moisture.
Cor. Ohio Farmer.