CROPS. 471 



ence in the United States, that where rye has been cultivated 

 for a considerable term of years successively on the same land, 

 and early clover has been sown upon it in the spring and ploughed 

 in with the stubble in the autumn at the time of sowing for the 

 next crop, the land, without any other application, has been in a 

 course of gradual improvement, and the yield of rye continually 

 increased. This is a common practice among the best Flemish 

 farmers, and highly approved. 



Of the rye cultivated, there is the winter and the spring rye, 

 which differ from each other only in the time of sowing, except 

 ing that the rye sowed in the autumn is more productive than 

 that sowed in the spring, having a longer time to grow in. The 

 rye, which I have described in another place as the St. John s- 

 day rye, and which has been recently introduced into England, 

 is known in France as the multicaulis or many-stalked rye. It 

 is sown in June, and will bear cutting two or three times for 

 green forage, and yet yield a good crop. It has the property of 

 tillering or spreading from the root very abundantly, though it is 

 maintained by some farmers that other kinds of rye, managed in 

 the same way, would show the same properties ; and the multi 

 caulis rye sown late in the autumn loses this property. The 

 grain of the multicaulis rye is not so salable in the market as 

 other rye, from its small size. 



The general cultivation of rye is so well understood, that I 

 need not enlarge upon it. The best farmers advise not to apply 

 fresh barn-manure to the crop, but prefer that which is decom 

 posed, or that it should follow a crop which has been well 

 manured and cleaned. It does not succeed well on lands subject 

 to fogs, and, therefore, they cultivate little of it directly in the 

 neighborhood of the Rhine. The straw is abundant, but the 

 grain does not fill well. 



The principal disease to which rye is subject is the ergot, in 

 which the kernels of the grain become swollen, and form a black, 

 horny substance, well known among medical men as a powerful 

 agent. This prevails much more in some years than in others ; 

 and when care is not taken to separate it from the grain before 

 it is ground, which can be done by careful winnowing or sifting, 

 it is productive of fatal disease, driving often to insanity, and 

 producing mortification in the limbs. The spotted fever, a 

 species of plague which prevailed in parts of New England with 



