THE COMMON CEREALS. 173 



Hudson Bay basin, the low temperatures of winter 

 will preclude the possibility of growing winter rye. 

 Although extremely hardy, even more so than any 

 of the clovers, there are low temperatures which it 

 cannot survive. Winter rye also renders yeoman 

 service in furnishing forage in latitudes with mild 

 temperatures, and more especially when the air in 

 these is moist and the rainfall sufficient. In such 

 areas the season for pasturing the rye is more con- 

 tinuous and prolonged than it can possibly be where 

 the winters are long and cold. 



Place in the Rotation. Rye for pasture may be 

 placed anywhere in the rotation. This is more par- 

 ticularly true of winter rye. But since it becomes 

 in a sense a "cleaning" crop when another crop 

 immediately follows the depasturing, it will be 

 found good practice to sow it on land that requires 

 cleaning. As the period for pasturing in the spring 

 is of but short duration, there is ample time to 

 follow rye pasture with corn, potatoes, sorghum 

 in any of its varieties, field roots, millet, or rape. 

 Such a succession cannot but prove destructive 

 to weeds, and the only sections where it cannot 

 be adopted successfully are those in which the rain- 

 fall is so meager as to prohibit the growing of 

 these crops the same season, after the rye has 

 been eaten off. 



Soil. Winter rye may be successfully grown 

 for pasture on any soil possessed of the requisite 

 fertility and moisture. It has much power to gather 

 food in the soil, hence, even on poor soils, it will 

 make a fair growth when supplied with the needed 

 moisture. On the other hand, the vigor of the 

 growth will be proportionate to the richness of the 



