A variety, under the name of African purple millet, was some years since introduced into North America, and recommended for cultivation as a soiling crop; but this, as well as other varieties, do not possess any advantages over Indian corn.

The natives of Mysore reckon three kinds, known as white, green, and red.  The red ripens a month earlier than the rest, or about four months from the time of sowing.  Near Bengal, Bombay, and elsewhere, in Eastern India, sowing is performed at the close of May or early in June.  A gallon and a third of seed is sown per acre, and the produce averages 16 bushels.  This grain, though small, and the size of its head diminutive, compensates for this deficiency by the great hulk and goodness of its straw, which grows usually to the height of 8 or 10 feet.  It is sometimes sown for fodder in the beginning of April, and is ready to cut in July.  It is said to be injurious to cattle, if eaten as green provender, the straw is therefore first dried, and is then preferable to that of rice.

This grain is frequently fermented to form the basis, in combination with goor or half made sugar, of the common arrack of the natives, and in the hills is fermented into a kind of beer or sweet wort, drank warm.

Holcus spicatus, the Panicum spicatum of Roxburgh, is cultivated in Mysore, Behar, and the provinces more to the north.  From one to four seers are sown on a biggah of land, and the yield is about four maunds per acre.  It is sown after the heavy rains commence, and the plough serves to cover the seed.  The crop is ripe in three months, and the ears only are taken off at first.  Afterwards the straw is cut down close to the surface of the soil, to be used for thatching, for it is not much in request as fodder.  Being a grain of small price, it is a common food of the poorer class of natives, and really yields a sweet palatable flour.  It is also excellent as a fattening grain for poultry.

The Poa Abyssinicais one of the bread-corns of Abyssinia.  The bread made from it is called teff, and is the ordinary food of the country, that made from wheat being only used by the higher classes.  The way of manufacturing it is by allowing the dough to become sour, when, generating carbonic acid gas, it serves instead of yeast.  It is then baked in circular cakes, which are white, spongy, and of a hot acid taste, but easy of digestion.  This bread, carefully toasted, and left in water for three or four days, furnishes the bousa, or common beer of the country, similar to the quas of Russia.

BROOM CORN.

The production of broom corn is rapidly extending, and corn brooms are driving broom sedge, as an article for sweeping floors, out of every humble dwelling in the United States.  There are about 1,000 acres of it under culture in one county (Montgomery) alone, and it brings 30 dollars per acre in the field.