In Lower Scinde joar is very extensively cultivated, as well as bajree (H. spicatus).  It is harvested in December and January; requires a light soil, and is usually grown in the east, after Cynosurus corocanus.

Guinea corn is extensively cultivated in some parts of Jamaica.  I did not, however, find it thrive on the north side of the island.  It is best planted in the West Indies between September and November, and ripens in January.  It ratoons or yields a second crop, when cut.  The returns are from 30 to 60 bushels an acre, but the crops are uncertain.

Mr. C. Bravo tried Guinea corn at St. Ann’s, Jamaica, as a green crop, sown broadcast, for fodder, and it answered admirably, the produce being very considerable.  It was weighed, and yielded 14 tons of fodder per acre, and was found very palatable and nutritious for cattle.  It was grown on a very poor soil, which had, previously to ploughing, given nothing but marigolds and weeds.  The luxuriant growth of the corn completely kept under the weeds.  A great number of the stalks were measured, and they averaged 10 feet from the root to the top of the upper leaf.  It had been planted 10 weeks, and had, therefore, grown a foot a month.  Mr. Bravo is of opinion, that sown broadcast it would answer either as a grain crop, as fodder, or ploughed in to increase the fertility of the soil.

Dr. Phillips, of Barbados, being of opinion that it might be advantageously employed as human food, requested Dr. Shier, the analytical chemist, of Demerara, to determine in his laboratory its richness in protein compounds (the muscle-forming part of vegetable food) in comparison with Indian corn.  He, therefore, caused a sample of each to be burned for nitrogen, when the following results were obtained:—­

                          Indian corn.  Guinea corn. 
  Water, per cent. 12.81 13.76
  In ordinary state—­
    Nitrogen, per cent. 1.83 1.18
    Protein compounds 11.51 7.42
  In dry state—­
    Nitrogen, per cent. 2.10 1.36
    Protein compounds 13.20 8.60

According to these results, the Guinea corn is less rich in nitrogen or protein compounds than Indian corn, though not much less so than some varieties of English wheat.

Indian corn meal, analysed by Mr. Hereford, from two localities, gave in the ordinary state of dryness 11.53 and 12.48 per cent. of protein compounds—­results which come very near to that obtained by Dr. Shier.

Sorghum avenaceum, or Holcus avenaceus, is a native of the Cape.

Several species and varieties of sorghum have been introduced, and more or less cultivated in the United States.  It is often popularly termed Egyptian corn.  It is closely allied to broom corn (S. saccharatum), the head being similar in structure, and the seed similar, except that in most varieties of sorghum, the outer covering does not adhere as in broom corn.  The plant bears a strong resemblance, while growing, to maize or Indian corn.  There is also some similarity in the grain, and it is extensively used as food by many oriental nations.