RYE. 91 



RYE. 



ESSEX. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



In the absence of any statement on the cultivation of rye, 

 perhaps it would not be inappropriate to lay before the society 

 the result of an experiment in the cultivation of that crop on 

 the town farm in South Danvers. The soil on this farm is 

 shallow and very gravelly ; and it has been the practice, in the 

 cultivation of crops here, to manure sward ground in the fall, 

 using four cords of manure to the acre, ploughing it in six 

 inches deep. In the spring following, it is cross-ploughed eight 

 inches deep, well harrowed, and planted with corn, potatoes, 

 beans, &c., using about a teaspoonful of plaster in the hill; 

 good crops are almost always obtained. The next spring, the 

 same land is manured with three c ords of manure to the acre, 

 plovghed in deep, and planted with vegetables, using plaster in 

 the hill as before. The manure used is such as is made on the 

 farm by swine and cattle, and worth six dollars per cord. 



In October, 1854, after the crops had been taken off the 

 ground, seven and three-fourths acres of land thus treated 

 were sown to rye, eight bushels of seed being used. The grain 

 came up well, and stood the winter tolerably well, though it 

 was killed in many places to a small extent ; the spring was 

 favorable, and it grew finely, and by the fifteenth of July it 

 was headed and well filled with grain. 



It was cut with cradles the last of July, before the grain was 

 fully ripe, (or in what the western farmers call the dovgh.') By 

 doing this the straw will be of a bright, beautiful color ; the 

 grain will be more full and plump, and will make better meal 

 than when left to become dry and hard before cutting. The 

 grain was bound in small bundles, carefully shocked in the 

 field, where, on account of the wet weather, it remained for 

 more than twenty days before it was sufficiently dry to put in 

 the barn ; but, care being taken to keep the shocks upright, it 

 sustained but little injury. It was gathered into the barn in 

 good' condition, and immediately threshed out. The yield was 



