Since I was a bit behind with the foxtail millet "millet-of-the-month" post, I might as well follow up with a century-old article about this grain. This piece was apparently syndicated, appearing in several local papers in the US around 1917. I found it interesting. You may judge how well it holds up after all this time. This particular version came from a paper in Lancaster, PA, accessed via Newspapers.com./1 An image is attached, and the text from a surprisingly good OCR (which I quickly corrected) follows below. The author, Harry N. Vinall, wrote a number of crop bulletins,/2 of which one of them with the same title as this article goes into more depth on the subject./3 Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance Notes: 1. "Growth and Utilization of Foxtail Millet," by H.N, Vinall, Lancaster Intelligencer, 27 June 1917, p. 8 https://www.newspapers.com/article/lancaster-intelligencer-growth-utiliza/14... 2. https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Vinall%2C%2... 3. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/101804274 ----------------------- THE GROWTH AND UTILIZATION OF FOXTAIL MILLET By H. N. VINALL The name millet is applied to a number of cultivated annual grasses, some of which are used largely as forage crops and others as cereals; most of them, however, are used either for forage or for grain, according to the needs of the growers. In the United all except for the broomcorn millet are used almost exclusively for forage purposes, but in Africa, India, China, Korea, Japan, and Russia the millets are grown extensively for human food. In China the broomcorn and foxtail millets are most common, and the grain, after being cleaned and hulled, is crushed and cooked as a porridge, much as certain breakfast foods are used in America. In India, pearl millet, which is grown there under the native name of bajra is the most important millet. Korea and Japan produce considerable proso and foxtail millet, and the latter country also devotes a considerable acreage to barnyard millet, which is grown there almost entirely for its seed; but the millet crop is of minor importance in these countries, as it is in Europe, where it is not cultivated extensively except in the Mediterranean region and in Russia. Much proso or broomcorn millet is produced in Russia, especially in the southeastern provinces. Millet is one of the oldest of cultivated crops. Its planting has been mentioned in Chinese records as being part of a religious ceremony carried out by the Chinese emperor as early as 2700 B. C. Probably native in southern Asia, its culture spread from there westward to Europe at an early date. In 1849 a distribution of millet German Millet. seed was made by the United States Patent Office, and in 1888 millet had become a rather important crop in the central states, where it was found better adapted than along the Atlantic coast. By 1899 over 74 per cent of the total acreage of millet was found in the north-central states. Kansas, with 349,906 acres, led all the states, and produced an average of 1.9 tons of millet hay per acre, against an average of 1.6 tons per acre for the whole United States. According to the thirteenth census, Kansas was still first in millet production, the leading states ranking in the following order: Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. To succeed well, millet must have warm weather during the growing season. It does not grow well at high altitudes or in other localities where cold weather prevails during the summer months. Notwithstanding this preference for warm weather, millet is grown successfully in our most northern states, especially those in the Great Plains region, because in those states the summers, though short, are hot. Millet, as it matures quickly, can be planted and harvested during these summer months. The long days prevailing in this latitude provide plenty of sunshine, and thus a less period of time is required for maturing the crop. The longer seasoned varieties, like German and Turkestan, can be grown successfully only in the central or southern states. Millet does best in localities which have a fairly abundant rainfall. Many writers have referred to the millets as drought-resistant crops, and they do have a low water requirement, but they lack the ability to recover after being injured by a period of drought. This ability to recover from drought injury is very pronounced in the sorghums, but the millets succeed in localities subject to drought almost entirely through their ability to escape periods of acute drought on account of their short growing season. Millet is usually one of the first crops to show the effect of a drought, mainly because of its shallow root system. A rich, loose, loamy soil is best for millet. Plenty of humus is advantageous, and for this reason millet is often planted on newly turned grass sod. It is a good crop for such situations also, because it seems to aid in disintegrating the sod. Good drainage is essential. Millet is grown chiefly as a catch crop and is not important as a constituent in a regular cropping system. Most farmers use it to overcome an expected shortage in their hay supply or to occupy a field which would otherwise be idle on account of the failure of a regular crop or because climatic conditions have prevented the seeding of such a crop. Millet is admirably suited to such use because of its short season of growth and the ease and certainty of obtaining a stand. The plant is also adapted to a wide range both of soils and of climates. Large yields are not obtained either on poor soils or in dry climates, but millet has been found to make a heavier yield under such conditions than most other hay crops. The strongest competitor of millet which has yet been found is Sudan grass, which promises to replace millet in many localities as a catch crop, so that a further decrease in the acreage of millet is to be expected. The quality of Sudan grass hay is superior to that of millet, and its yields under comparable conditions are nearly always larger, but the growing season is a trifle longer than that required by either Common or Hungarian millet. Foxtail millet is used to some extent as a soiling crop, but it is not as well suited for this purpose as the sorghums and some of the small grains. Pearl millet is better for use as a green feed than the foxtail millets, because of its larger yield and its ability to make a second growth after being cut down; and both pearl millet and barnyard millet are better silage crops than foxtail millet, because of their larger yields and greater succulence. Foxtail millet has never been utilized to any great extent as a grain crop in the United States. In China and certain other parts of Asia, as was stated in the introduction, it is used more or less as human food. So long as wheat can be produced in the United States as abundantly and cheaply as at present little millet will be grown for human food. --
