GRAIN AND ITS CULTIVATION. 139 



VARIETIES. 



The Black Sea Wheat is one of the most popular kinds 

 at present cultivated. Of this there are two varieties, the 

 red and the white chaff, both of which are bearded. The 

 former is generally preferred. This wheat has yielded very 

 profitable crops. The flour from this, like that from the 

 Mediterranean wheat, is of a dark color. 



The Siberian is an excellent wheat, and has been much 

 raised in this country. It produces a full, fine grain, is hardy 

 and a good bearer. The Italian has also been extensively 

 cultivated, and held in high estimation ; but it is now generally 

 giving place to the preceding, where both have been tried. 



There are some other varieties which bear well and are 

 tolerably hardy. Excellent spring grain has been produced, 

 by early sowing from choice winter wheat, which has re- 

 tained most of the characteristics of the original, under its 

 new summer culture. In large sections of this country, 

 wheat has been seriously injured by winter-killing and other 

 casualties ; and wherever these prevail, and the soil is suited 

 to it, spring or summer wheat may be advantageously intro- 

 duced. A proper attention to the selection of seed and the 

 preparation of the soil, will generally insure a profitable re- 

 turn. If the market value of this wheat is not as high as 

 the winter grain, it may' at least afford all that the farmer 

 and his laborers require as food ; 'and he will generally find, 

 if not in a wheat- growing region, that he can dispose of his 

 surplus crop among his neighbors before the next harvest 

 conies round, and at satisfactory prices. 



RYE (Secale sereale). 



This is extensively cultivated in the northeastern and 

 middle Atlantic States. It is grown on the light lands of 

 Ohio and Michigan, and as the supporting elements of wheat 

 become exhausted in the soil of the rich agricultural States 

 of the West, rye will take its place in a great measure on 

 their lighter soils. Most of the eastern States produced 

 wheat when first subjected to cultivation ; but where lime 

 did not exist in the soil, the wheat crop soon failed, and it 

 gradually receded from the Atlantic border, except in marly 

 or calcareous soils, rye almost universally succeeding it. 

 But the liberal use of lime, connected with an intelligent ap- 

 plication of the agricultural improvements of the present 

 day, are regaining for wheat, much of its ancient territory. 



Rye resembles wheat in its bread-making properties, and 



