100 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



Afternoon Session. 



Wheat and Rye. 



The afternoon session was opened by a paper on the cul- 

 ture of rje, by James B. Olcott, of Buckland, which was 

 read by Mr. Gold. 



CULTURE OF RYE. 



JAMES B. OLCOTT. 



The old saying was that " any land that'll grow big mulleins 

 will fetch a good crop of rye." This came to be used after 

 our plain-lands had been strif)ped of their wood to supply 

 glass works now almost forgotten, and when well-worn sandy 

 fields were already common. The plow for rye was driven at 

 its liveliest speed, perhaps, in our town, a full generation 

 since, before the increase of manufactures, while every farm- 

 house was packed with full-fledged children, like a nest of 

 grass-quails just ready to take wing ; while our uncles and 

 aunts were being pinched off westward by the sterility of the 

 land, or while the dull boy of the family was making desper- 

 ate efforts to portion the bright ones ofif for college and keep 

 the old homestead intact by growing this grain at fifty cents 

 per bushel to the distiller. A proper credit where credit is 

 due, would mete to the "dull boys" of those times, who fed 

 the fires of the family altar while their more mercurial bro- 

 thers and sisters went errant over the world, with a fuller 

 measure of honor than has been customary. Their attention 

 to little things and small savings, imperative in their circum- 

 stances, has incurred the contempt of the superficial and 

 thoughtless observer. Yet a just consideration of the self- 

 denial and the long lives of patient, cheerful, lowly labor of 

 many a close-calculating rye-grower of the past generation 

 will show that he helped mightily to make solid the founda- 

 tions of our national wealth, and instead of being stingy and 



