The season is now at hand when farmers who have light lands, and who
may possibly find themselves short of fodder for next winter feeding,
should prepare for a crop of millet. This is a plant that rivals corn
for enduring a drought, and for rapid growth. There are three popular
varieties now before the public, besides others not yet sufficiently
tested for full indorsement--the coarse, light colored millet, with a
rough head, Hungarian millet, with a smooth, dark brown head, yielding
seeds nearly black, and a newer, light colored, round seeded, and
later variety, known as the golden millet.
Hungarian millet has been the popular variety with us for many years,
although the light seeded, common millet is but slightly different in
appearance or value for cultivation. They grow in a short time, eight
weeks being amply sufficient for producing a forage crop, though a
couple of weeks more would be required for maturing the seed. Millet
should not be sown in early spring, when the weather and ground are
both cold. It requires the hot weather of June and July to do well;
then it will keep ahead of most weeds, while if sown in April the
weeds on foul land would smother it.
Millet needs about two months to grow in, but if sowed late in July it
will seem to "hurry up," and make a very respectable showing in less
time. We have sown it in August, and obtained a paying crop, but do
not recommend it for such late seeding, as there are other plants that
will give better satisfaction. Golden millet has been cultivated but a
few years in this country, and as yet is but little known, but from a
few trials we have been quite favorably impressed with it. It is
coarser than the other varieties, but cattle appear to be very fond of
it nevertheless. It resembles corn in its growth nearly as much as
grass, and, compared with the former, it is fine and soft, and it
cures readily, like grass, and may be packed away in hay mows with
perfect safety. It is about two weeks later than the other millets,
and consequently cannot be grown in quite so short a time, although it
may produce as much weight to the acre, in a given period, as either
of the other more common varieties. A bushel of seed per acre is not
too much for either variety of millet.--_N.E. Farmer._
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