168 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XI. 



abundant upon good land, provided it be not of a clayey nature. It also 

 admits of a greater degree of that property which is termed " acidity of 

 soil," than is favourable to the growth of wheat or barley ; and it may, 

 therefore, be grown upon heaths, which naturally produce nothing but 

 scanty herbage *. 



CULTIVATION. 



Rye, being usually sown upon light soils, obtains less attention in its 

 production than wheat ; it also suffers less by being sown upon the stubble of 

 another corn crop ; or even upon its own ; and it is, therefore, not unusual 

 to grow it two years successively : the spring species being sometimes 

 made to succeed that sown in autumn. Some farmers even repeat it a 

 third and fourth year; but this exhausts the land to a degree which can 

 hardly be repaid by any manure produced by the crops. Thus, upon 

 many of the hilly manors of North and South Wales, which were enclosed 

 during the late war, the ground was pared and burned, and being re- 

 peatedly sown with rye, was afterwards thrown open without any further 

 care : the consequence of which has been the destruction of the grass 

 which the land naturally ])roduced, and which, not being capable of reno- 

 vation during a long series of years, has occasioned the utter ruin of a 

 large extent of valuable sheep-walk. 



On well-managed farms, in bleak situations unfit for the production of 

 wheat, the ground has, however, been broken up with such advantage, that 

 86 bushels, and upwards, of rye, are stated as not an uncommon return ; 

 and men of much experience assert that they never had so much profit 

 from wheat crops on lowland gravelly loams, as from rye crops on fresh 

 wastes of some elevation. It has also been sown among late turnips, which 

 have been fed oflp, and the rye, being allowed to stand, has produced good 

 crops. 



On half-reduced fallows, or ground where the farmer cannot expect a 

 good crop of wheat, he sows 7nesli?t, or mingled corn, generally in the 

 proportion of one-fourth, though sometimes of one-half of rye to wheat : 

 the object being to guard against a thin and weedy crop of the latter grain ; 

 and it has been remarked, that " when wheat and rye are grown mixed 

 in this manner, the grains of each are larger and more perfect than 

 when grown singly, without any admixture t-" It is also said, that 

 they are more free from disease. The rye is well known to be the 

 hardier plant of the two, less subject to the attacks of insects, rust, or smut, 

 and when both sown together, they ripen at nearly the same time ; but 

 it must not be sown on land which has been limed, for it is an extra- 

 ordinary fiict, that lime is injurious to its growth. It has, indeed, 

 been asserted, upon the authority of the Survey of South Wales, " that 

 were meslin sown on a pared and burned turbary, or on any other coarse 

 soil — a grain of rye for every grain of wheat — by harvest-time the rye 

 would probably be found to compose full three-fourths of the crop : while, 

 on old limed ground, the case would be reversed." 



It further states, — " that on cutting a new road on the side of a steep 

 declivity, the materials dug up, consisting chiefly of ' shale,' mouldering 

 readily in the air, were thrown underneath upon part of a fallow for rye, 

 which was sown the September following, over the whole piece. The 

 lower part had been treated vvith lime ; the upper pared and burned, and on 

 part of it the shale had been spread. In May and June following, the 

 crops were very different. The limed crop had a fair appearance ; but 



='■= Von Thaer, Principes Raisoiines d'Agric, 2(le ed.tom. iv. ^ 1035. 

 f Survey of Northumberlauil, 3d edition, p. 80. 



