MILLET CROWING

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 143587, 28 August 1911, Page 5

MILLET CROWING

NOTES ON ITS VALUE.

(Contributed.) As some of the farmers in this district are making trial of millet as a fodder crop, a lew notes cm the plant and its cultivation may be of interest. There are many kinds of miller, divided into four groups, termed respectively, the Foxtail, tlie Barnyard, ilie Broom Corn, ana the Pearl millet. To the first belong the common millet, Gorman, Hungarian, etc. Of these the German millet is probably the best for pasture because of the abundance of leaves. To the second group belong varieties derived from tne common barnyard grass (panicum crus galli) and others. Japanese millet belongs to this group, and is much coarser and larger growth than the Foxtail. Japanese millets are better adapted for soiling than for pasturing. The Broom Corn millets are more used for seed than tor providing pasture. In some parts of America it is grown as feed for hogs. The Pearl millets are something like maize in their habits of growth. .Shaw states in his “Forage Crops” that planted in rich soil and cultivated it grows to the height of 8 to 10ft., and that as much as £ls tons have been grown on very rich land from three cuttings in one season, it springs up quickly after being eaten down. Some authorities do not speak encouragingly of its value as a food, but .Minnesota University experiments seem to modify their views. The soils best adapted ta millet are those well supplied with humus, such as soils of swamps, basins or pockets surrounded by higher lands and river bottoms where there is not too much sand. New broken soil abounding in humus is adapted for millet. Sandy soils are illadapted to its growth when poor in humus.

In preparing tho ground in which millet is to he sown the aim should be to have it in fine tilth, clean and moist. If millet -is to be the only crop, there is plenty of time to thus prepare the ground Ijeforc it goes in. If it is grown as a catch crop, a free use of harrow and roller is necessary to mellow tho upturned surface. It is not customary in America to manure land when preparing it for millet, ns it is seldom looked on as a leading crop. The manures to which millet responds most readily arc those rich in nitrogen in an easily available form. Nothing is better than well-decayed farmyard manure. To get much benefit from manures applied just before the sowing. an ample supply of moisture is required. Millet will not grow vigorously while the weather is cool, and should not be sown sooner than the usual season for planting maize. It may be sown later, as some millets mature in two months or a little longer from the date of sowing, Millet in all varieties is easily injured by frost, being really a summer crop. Tho mode of sowing varies, most commonly broadcast, but it may lie sown with a grain drill. Some grain drills do not SOW tho seed sufficiently thin unless the seed Was just been mixed with some other substance. Japanese millet sown for fodder rntlmr than pasture should be sown in drills sufficiently wide apart to admit of cultivation. Sown broadcast for soiling or fodder, half to one bushel ot the smaller varieties is enough, but wheti pasture is required the quantity should not be less than one bushel. When sown in drills the quantity required is less, depending on the distance betwen the rows and tho number of plants in tho rows. At Minnesota University Experiment Station 61h. ot seed were enough to sow an acre in rows 30in. apart. Millet seed should be covered lightly, and every care should be taken to conserve enough moisture to give the seed a good start.

Millet being sown late, it is very suitable as a “catch” crop, lint there is no place in a rotation where millet is better grown for pasture than on a hare fallow. It is possessed of peculiar adaptation for being grown on loose soils, since these are rather improved than injured by being trodden on by stock. It may be calen off at any stage desired, and may he followed by whatever cron may he wished. It. n usually considered of too much value for hay to ho thus fed off.

I would conclude by quoting- from Shaw on “Fording Farm Animals,” a bonk which is in the hands of several up-to-date farmers. “Since it prows best in warm weather and matures in about 75 days, it may furnWi a crop of seed very much in composition like oats. It has little ‘hull,’ and its feeding value, especially where maize is not prow it for grain, will be at once apparent. Owing to the hardness of the grain it is fed only in the ground form excent to sheep and fowls ” “For calves and young cattle ground millet forms a suitable form of . concentrate.” For rows in milk, Shaw states that ground millet is a useful part of the grain ration np to 50 per cent, of the grain ted. Ground millet is also said to be a useful fond for horses and nromotea muscular strength. It should bo raived with oats or with grain.