Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/339

Rh MILLET 321 MILLET (French, millet Italian, miglietto, diminutive of miglio = Latin mille, a thousand, in allusion to its fertility) is a name applied with little definiteness to a con siderable number of often very variable species of cereals belonging to distinct genera and even subfamilies of Graminese. The true millet, however, is generally admitted to be Panicum (Setaria) miliaceum, L. (German Hirse, with which P. miliare, Lam., is reckoned by some botanists). It is indigenous to the East Indies and North Australia, but is mentioned by Hippocrates and Theo- phrastus as already cultivated in South Europe in their time. Some suppose it to be one of the earliest grains used in bread-making, and ascribe the origin of its name topanis, bread, rather than to the paniculate inflorescence. It is annual, requires rich but friable soil, grows to about 3 or 4 feet high, and is characterized by its bristly, much branched nodding panicles. One variety has black grains. It is largely cultivated in India, southern Europe, and northern Africa, and ripens as far north as southern Germany, in fact, wherever the climate admits of the production of wine. The grain, which is very nutritious, is used in the form of groats, and makes excellent bread when mixed with wheaten flour. It is also largely used for feeding poultry and cage- birds, for which purpose mainly it is imported. P. italicum, L. (Setaria italica, Beauv.), is of similar origin and distribution, and is one of the most wholesome and palatable Indian cereals. It is annual, grows 4 to 5 feet high, and requires dry light soil. German Millet (P. germanicum, Ger man Kolbenhirse, Mohar) is probably merely a less valuable and dwarf variety of P. italicum, having an erect, compact, and shorter spike. The grains of both are very small, only one half as long as those of common millet, but are exceedingly prolific. Many stalks arise from a single root, and a single spike often yields 2 oz. of grain, the total yield being five times that of wheat. They are imported for poultry feeding like the former species, but are extensively used in soups, &c., on the Continent. Numerous other species belonging to this vast genus the largest among grasses, of which the following are among the most important are also culti vated in tropical or sub-tropical countries for their grain or as fodder grasses, or both, each variety of soil, from swamp to desert, having its characteristic forms. They are very readily acclimatized wherever the temperature is sufficient, e.g., in Australia, and seem destined to rise in agricultural importance. Polish Millet is P. digitaria ; P. frumentaceum, Roxb. , Shamalo, a Deccan grass, is probably a native of tropical Africa ; while the perennial P. sarmentosum, Roxb., also largely cultivated in tropical countries, is from Sumatra. P. decomposition is the Australian millet, its grains being made into cakes by the aborigines. P. maximum, Jacq. , is the Guinea Grass ; it is perennial, grows 8 feet high, and yields abundance of highly nutritious grain. P. spec- labile, Nees. , is the Coapim of Angola, but has been acclimatized in Brazil and other tropical countries. Other gigantic species 6 or 7 feet high form the field crops on the banks of the Amazons. Of species belonging to allied genera, Pennisetum thyphoidcum, Rich. (Peni- cellaria spicata, Willd.), Bajree, sometimes also called Egyptian Millet, a Guinea corn, is largely cultivated in tropical Asia, Nubia, and Egypt. P. distichum grows south of the Sahara. Species of Paspalum, Elcunnc, and Mil turn are also cultivated as millets. But the most important dry grain of the tropical countries FIG. 1. Panicum italicum. of Africa and Asia, particularly of India, is Sorghum vulgarc, Pers. (Holcus Sorghum, L., Andropogon Sorghum, Roxb.), Durra, Great Millet, Indian Millet, Turkish Millet, or Guinea Corn (the French sorgho, German Mohren- hirse or KaffernJcorn, Ta mil Cholum, Bengalese Joivari). It ranges prob ably as extensively as wheat, being also largely cultivated in southern Europe, the United States, and the West Indies. In Asia Minor, Arabia, Italy, and Spain it may be said to replace oats and barley. It is annual, and may reach 12 feet in height; it is extremely prolific, even rivalling maize, of which it is a near congener. Its flour is very white, but does not easily make good bread ; it is largely used in cakes and puddings and for feeding cattle and poultry. The panicles are used for brooms, and the roots for velvet-brushes. VIG. %. Sorghum vulgare. S. bicolor, S. nigrum, S. rubrum, S. Kaffrorum (Kaffre Corn), S. saccharatum, and other species or varieties are also of economic importance, the last-named (the &quot;Chinese sugar-cane&quot;) being much cultivated in the United States as a source of molasses, the juice, which contains much glucose but comparatively little cane sugar, being simply expressed and concentrated by evaporation. S. vulgare is the grain referred to by Pliny as millet. For systematic and economic purposes, see GRASSES ; Luerssen, Mcd.-Pharm. Botanik, Leipsic, 1880; Drury, Useful Plants of India, London, 1873 ; F. v. Miiller, Select Plants for Naturaliza tion in Victoria, Melbourne, 1876. For archaeology, see Hehn s Kulturpflanzcn, &c., Berlin, 1877. On Sorghum ccrunum (&quot;rice corn,&quot; &c., of western Kansas) see Drummond s &quot;Report&quot; in Parl. Papers, No. 2570 (1880). MILLET, JEAN FRANgois (1814-1875), was a painter of French peasant life, and it may be questioned whether France has produced in our day any greater or more original artist. He himself came of a peasant family, and was born on the 4th of October 1814 in the hamlet of Gruchy, near GreVille (La Manche), in the wild and picturesque district called La Hague. His boyhood was passed working in his father s fields, but the sight of the engravings in an old illustrated Bible set him drawing, and thenceforth, whilst the others slept, the daily hour of rest was spent by Millet in trying to render the familiar scenes around him. From the village priest the lad learnt to read the Bible and Virgil in Latin, and acquired an interest in one or two other works of a high class which accompanied him through life ; he did not, however, attract attention so much by his acquirements as by the stamp of his mind. The whole family seems, indeed, to have worn a character of austerity and dignity, and when Millet s father finally decided to test the vocation of his son as an artist, it was with a gravity and authority which recalls the patriarchal households of Calvinist France. Two drawings were pre pared and placed before a painter at Cherbourg named Mouchel, who at once recognized the boy s gifts, and accepted him as a pupil ; but shortly after (1835) Millet s father died, and the eldest son, with heroic devotion, took his place at home, nor did he return to his work until the XVI. 41