Millet
Millet names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Millet a general name for several annual grasses of quick summer growth
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a general name for several annual grasses of quick summer growth. All are related more or less closely to the foxtail and the barnyard grass. In the United States millet is sowed for hay usually when some other crop has failed to grow or has been destroyed by an early hailstorm. On strong land a crop of two or three tons to the acre, or even double that amount, can be raised in eight weeks' growth. Millet hay is not a favorite forage with live stock, but, when cut green and well cured, it makes a tolerable substitute for better hay, ranking fairly well with coarse corn fodder. It is a tolerable food for sheep and young stock. Millet seed is excellent for the poultry yard and is credited with increasing the supply of eggs. In Asia the millets are of much greater importance. From 35,000,000 to 40,000,000 acres a year are grown in India. Japan uses millet flour from 35,000,000 bushels of seed annually. Corea, China, Manchuria, and other Asiatic regions use enormous quantities of millet bread. The cultivation of millet is believed to have preceded that of all other cereals.
Millet JEAN FRANÇOIS
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JEAN FRANÇOIS, a French painter; born in Gruchy, near Cherbourg, France, Oct. 4, 1814. He worked with his his peasant father in the fields; studied drawing at the academy of Cherbourg; from thence passed with an allowance from this town to the atelier of Delaroche in Paris, and exhibited at the Salon in 1840. In 1849 he left Paris and settled among the peasants of Barbizon, on the edge of Fontainebleau Forest, and devoted himself to transferring their simple everyday life to his canvases, which he did with great truth of sentiment and subdued poetic charm. Of his paintings may be men- "The tioned "The Sheep-Shearers," leaners," "The Sowe Sower ," "The Shepherdess with her Flock," and "The Ange- The last was sold by auction auction lus." in Paris, in 1889, for about $115,000. He died in Barbizon, France, Jan. 20, 1875. Among his paintings in the United "The Sower" (Vanderbilt States are Coll.), "Harvesters" and "Homestead at Gréville" (Boston Art Museum), "Potato Diggers" and "Breaking Flax" (Walters Coll.), "Man with the Hoe" (San Francisco Museum).
Millet FRANCIS ican artist and author
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
FRANCIS ican artist and author; born in Matta- DAVIS, an Amer. poisett, Mass., Nov. 3, 1846; was graduated at Harvard College in 1869. His art work was largely in connection with expositions. He was very successful as correspondent of the London "Daily News" in the Turco-Russian War; was special correspondent of the London "Times" and "Harper's Weekly" at Manila (1898); and a frequent contributor to periodicals. He published in book form "A Capillary Crime, and Other Stories"; and "The Danube from the Black Forest to the Black Sea." Died 1912 in the "Titanic" disaster. - MILLET
Millet the common name for a great number of cereal plants
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the common name for a great number of cereal plants, the grains of which are used as food, and for making a kind of beer, in various countries.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 note that millet is sown in America mostly "when some other crop has failed" still fits: US millet is largely proso grown for birdseed and emergency hay, while Asia and Africa remain the great consumers, with India still the largest producer — the UN declared 2023 the International Year of Millets, promoting the grains as drought-tolerant crops for a warming climate. The guess that millet cultivation "preceded that of all other cereals" has held up better than most such claims: broomcorn millet from northern China is among the oldest domesticated grains known, and the foxtail millet genome was sequenced in 2012. Of the two men, Jean-François Millet's reputation sank after the speculative prices Collier's records for "The Angelus" in 1889, then recovered; "The Angelus" and "The Gleaners" now hang in the Musée d'Orsay, and "The Man with the Hoe" left San Francisco for the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1985. Francis Davis Millet, whose 1912 death Collier's records in a single line, is now remembered chiefly as a Titanic victim, commemorated with Archibald Butt in a fountain near the White House.
Written for this edition, 2026.