Vegetable substances used for the food of man / by Dr. Lankester. With illustrations.

  • Lankester, Edwin, 1814-1874.
Date:
[1850?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable substances used for the food of man / by Dr. Lankester. With illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    injured by either drought or rain. The only care required in its cultivation is to allow sufficient space for the tillering of the plants, and to weed and hoe the intervals during the early part of the growth ; after which it will overtop and smother all weeds. When millet is ripe, the panicles are cut off near to the top of the stalk, and collected in sacks or baskets. They are then laid up in heaps, and care- fully covered during five or six days; after which they are spread on the barn floor, and the grain is threshed out in the ordinary manner with a flail. The more primitive method of treading out the grain by means of oxen is resorted to in some parts of India If millet is not perfectly dry when deposited in the granary, it will soon be spoiled; but, on the other hand, if this precaution be properly taken, there is no grain that will keep longer or better. The weevil will not touch it, and although it is doubtless the better for being turned over occasionally, that pro- cess, so indispensable with other grain, may be omitted here without producing any serious injury. In addition to the use made of the stalks as fodder, the Nubians employ them in the construction of tem- porary huts. In the barren districts of Bornou, a species of millet is produced, which is called by the inhabitants gussub, and upon which both men and animals are almost exclusively fed. By the poorer class it is fre- quently eaten, simply parched, or even without any culinary preparation. Other persons crush and then steep the seeds in water previous to eating them, and some few, who are the epicures of the land, clear the grain from the husk, pound it, and make it up into a light paste with melted fat: this favourite dish is called kaddel. Travellers who have visited the central parts of