Millet and Man.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 257, 3 November 1904, Page 4

Millet and Man.

When wa speak of rice as the staple food of India, we are wrong ; we m*jan millet. A cereal of widely distributed Krowt'h, attains during the short summer in Manchuria a height which, by the beginning of next month, will be ten feet. That is why the Japanese complain that they cannot scout properly because of the millet. In happier days it serves its purpose well. It is the food of man in Manchuria, of poor man, that is. Give a Manchurian labourer four pounds a day of millet, meat twice a month, and a little coarse flour on another couple of days in the month, and he will flourish exceedingly. With the leaves of the plant he will make mats, thatch ricks and cottages; with the 1 straws make brushes, employ tljem in the making oi fences and ttrldgel/mMing, and as fuel.: Also, be will chop up the stalks as cattle fodder, tor which purpose, in time of plenty, the whole gram, unhuskad, will serve. Even the roots have their purpose, and make capital fuel,! There is no gain m the worldmore thoroughly well used than millet, and a Manchurian gets half a ton of it for every haflf-score pouuds he sows in an acre of rough wheat.