58 ELEMENTS OF FARM PRACTICE 



Harvesting. — Barley is cut and shocked in the same 

 manner as wheat. Special care must be taken with barley, 

 if it is to be sold for malting, to protect it from the weather, 

 as bleaching of the kernels materially reduces the value 

 for that purpose. It must, therefore, be cut as soon as it 

 is ripe, carefully shocked in capped shocks, and stacked or 

 threshed as soon as it is dry enough. 



RYE 



Rye is the least important cereal crop in the United 

 States, but is more important as a world crop than barley. 

 Russia produces the largest acreage of rye of any country. 

 Germany, Austria-Hungary, Norway, and Sweden, and 

 France are other important rye-producing countries. In 

 these countries it is used to a much greater extent for bread 

 than in the United States. It is used for bread, for the 

 manufacture of alcohol, and as feed for stock. The green 

 crop is often used for pasture, and it will furnish pasture 

 earlier in the spring than most other crops. Rye is an ex- 

 cellent crop to grow in cleaning land of weeds, because it 

 matures early. 



Culture. — There are two types of rye, spring and winter. 

 Winter rye is the more common in the United States. It is 

 very hardy, and will grow on almost any kind of soil. It is 

 commonly sown on the lighter soils, because it will do bet- 

 ter on such soils than other grain crops. It is usually sown 

 in the fall from August to October, at the rate of five to six 

 pecks per acre. It is harvested in about the same manner 

 as other grain crops are. 

 Questions: 



1. Tell what you can about the importance, uses, varieties and 

 culture of barley and of rye. 

 Arithmetic: 



1. If rye yields 16 bushels per acre, weighing 56 lbs. per bushel, 

 how many pounds are produced per acre? 



2. If barley yields 25 bushels per acre, weighing 48 lbs. per bushel, 

 how many pounds are produced per acre? 



Exercises: 



1. Gather samples of seed of all the grain crops grown in your 

 neighborhood and make sure that you can properly name each. Find 

 two or three of the most popular varieties of wheat, oats and barley 

 grown in your community. Can you tell these varieties apart by 

 the seed? 



