82 RYE 
It is a protection to fields liable to washing. It ab- 
sorbs certain useful minerals and acids that otherwise 
would be lost to the soil. 
One writer, speaking of rye, says: “The labor of 
applying evenly forty loads of manure per acre is con- 
siderable. All this is done more evenly by the green 
crop. Seed and labor together cost me but three dollars 
and a half per acre. I cannot say that it adds as much 
fertility to the soil as forty loads of manure, but I do 
say that in our droughty seasons it produces as great 
an increase of crop as do forty two-horse loads of good 
manure. It certainly pays to practice it, and to practice 
it largely, even on the land well supplied with stable 
manure.” 
In the fall of 1907 I planted rye in corn. The fall 
was the dryest we had had for years, but notwithstand- 
ing the extreme drought the rye made a splendid 
growth before winter and covered the ground. Some 
of the rye was plowed under quite early in the spring, 
and some on high rolling ground was not plowed under 
until it was heading. The entire field was planted to 
sweet corn. In breaking the field the soil broke and 
turned over as a sod field would. The soil was loose 
and friable, and a splendid crop of sweet corn was 
grown. The corn grown on the higher and rolling por- 
tion of the ground and which was plowed when the rye 
was in head produced more per acre than the remainder 
of the field, and yet this portion of the field was the 
poorest. 
I had another ten-acre field, which I also planted to 
rye in the fall of 1907. This field was subject to much 
