354 THE CEREALS IN AMERICA 



495. Center of Production. — In 1850 the concciitration of the 

 rye crop in the North Atlantic division was greater than that of 

 barley, eighty-three per cent of the entire crop coming from 

 that region. The westward movement has not been so rapid 

 as in the case of barley; the North Atlantic division fur- 

 nished twenty-nine and the North Central division sixty- 

 three per cent of the total production in 1900. The center of 

 production in 1850 was somewhere west of the center of New 

 York and Pennsylvania; in 1899 it had shifted westward into 

 the State of Illinois. Fifty-three per cent of the crop of 1899 

 was furnished by four States : Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New 

 York and Michigan. 



496. Yield per Acre. — The average annual yield per acre of 

 rye during the decade 1893-1902 was approximately fifteen 

 bushels, an increase of about three bushels over the previous 

 decade. There is little variation in yield in the North Central 

 and North Atlantic States ; the South Atlantic States fall quite 

 below the average. Twenty to twenty-five bushels per acre is 

 considered a good yield. The legal weight per bushel is fifty- 

 six pounds in Canada and all the States of the Union, except 

 California, where it is fifty-four pounds. 



497. Commercial Grades. — Only one class of rye is recog- 

 nized, the following being the rules for grading this class by the 

 Illinois Board of Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners : 



" No. I rye. — Shall be sound, plump and well cleaned. 



" No. 2 rye. — Shall be sound, reasonably clean and reasonably free from other 

 grain. 



" No. 3 rye, — Shall be reasonably sound, reasonably dry, free from must, and 

 not good enough for No. 2. 



" No. 4 rye. — All rye, damp, musty, or for any other cause unfit for No. 3." 



498. History. — The cultivation of rye is not nearly so ancient 

 as that ot wheat and barley. It was unknown to the ancient 

 Egyptians. The ancient Greeks did not know it. Its intro- 

 duction into the Roman Empire was hardly earlier than the 



