The millets, known to Europeans as petit mais, are tropical or sub-tropical crops.  In India they hold a second rank to rice alone; and in Egypt, perhaps, surpass all other crops in importance.  In Western Africa they are the staff of life.  The red and white millets shown by Austria, Russia, and the United States, at the Great Exhibition, were beautiful, and Ceylon exhibited fair samples.  Turkey abounds in small grains.

Panicum miliaceum and P. frumentaceum are the species grown in the East Indies.  Loudon says there are three distinct species of millet; the Polish, the common or German, and the Indian. Setaria Germanica yields German millet.  The plants are readily increased by division of the roots or by seed, and will grow in any common soil.  The native West Indian species are P. fascisculatwm and oryzoides.  Millet receives some attention in New South Wales.  In 1844 there were 100 acres of land under cultivation with it, and the amount grown in some years in this colony has been about 3,500 bushels.

In the United States millet is chiefly grown for making hay, being found a good substitute for clover and the ordinary grasses.  It is a plant which will flourish well on rather thin soils, and it grows so fast that when it is up and well set it is seldom much affected by drought.  It is commonly sown there in June, but the time of sowing will vary with the latitude.  Half a bushel of seed to the acre is the usual quantity, sown broadcast and harrowed in.  For the finest quantity of hay, it is thought advisable to sow an additional quantity of three or four quarts of seed.  The ordinary yield of crops may be put at from a ton to a ton and a half of hay to the acre.  It should be cut as soon as it is out of blossom; if it stands later, the stems are liable to become too hard to make good hay.  The variety known as German millet is that most common in North America.  It grows ordinarily to the height of about three feet, with compact heads from six to nine inches in length, bearing yellow seed.  There are some sub-varieties of this, as the white and purple-seeded.

The Italian millet, Setaria italica, is larger than the preceding, reaching the height of four feet in tolerable soil, and its leaves are correspondingly larger and thicker.  The heads are sometimes a foot or more in length, and are less compact than the German, being composed of several spikes slightly branching from the main stem.  It is said to derive its specific name from being cultivated in Italy, though its native habitat is India.  It is claimed by some that this variety will yield more seed than any other, and the seed is rather larger, but the stalk is coarser, and would probably be less relished by stock.