102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



but little of it, and that little is consumed chiefly by our most 

 conservative aud old-fashioned people. Yet there seems to 

 be a revival of interest iu this grain as humau food. The 

 prejudice against its honest drab color is being somewhat 

 abated. Obscure diseases of the nervous system are quite 

 prevalent, and it comes to be remembered that in the times 

 when bread was browner and rye was a staple raw material 

 for it, that very few people were aware they had any nerves. 

 I've seen a "nervous sufferer" of our town, "worth a hun- 

 dred thousand dollars," so disgusted with medicine, and fear- 

 ful of " refined," medicated, stale an ! musty breadstuffs, as to 

 fling them all aside and fall back upon the simple brown rye 

 in the berry, wliich he grinds in his own coffee-mill and cooks 

 in his own porridge-pot, to the rapid building up and rejuve- 

 nation of his physical powers. And it is this altogether hu- 

 man view of the rye interest wliich inclines me to select it for 

 tlie subject of this communication. Not because we produce 

 much of it or use mucli, but because there is a growing be- 

 lief among shrewd people that we ought to do both a deal 

 more than we do. Tiiat we ought to grow it ourselves just 

 for the sake of having it clean and sweet, and close at hand. 

 Wheat suffers l)adly in coming to our market, through vermin 

 and musty sweats in stacks and elevators. It is high time 

 we began to raise our own. We could do it as cheaply as we 

 can buy it, except that we are somewhat out of that line of 

 business and have forgotten how. But the readiest way for 

 us to strengthen the wheat crop is to vary our " staff of life " 

 by using bread from rye occasionally — a grain that we still 

 liavc the seed of, and which, like the people who live upon it, 

 is the hardiest of its species, defying insects, sterility and cli- 

 matic rigors. The appetizing difference between wheat and 

 rye is a continual source of gastronomic satisfaction of pre- 

 cisely that sort necessary to health — well understood by the 

 lover of both grains, who delights to turn from bread of one 

 kind to bread of the other cereal at frequent intervals through 

 the year. I hear of inexperienced hands getting embarrass- 

 ingly stuck in the gluten of rye during their first experiments. 

 To beginners in making fine rye bread, I can commend with 



