FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 317 



RYE (Secale.) There is but one kind of rye ; but this 

 may be made either Winter-rye, or Spring-rye, by gradually 

 habituating it to different limes of sowing. Take YV inter- 

 rye, tor instance, and sow it later and later, each Fall, and 

 it may at length be sown in the Spring; and then it be- 

 comes Spring-rye. 



On the contrary, sow Spring-rye very late in the Fall, at 

 first, and you may gradually sow it earlier each succeed. ng 

 year, until it may even be sown in May, and used the fi:st 

 season lor pasture, or mowing, and then grown to ptrtec- 

 tion the second year. 



Soils ot a sandy or gravelly texture are the most natural 

 for rye. Almost every kind of dry soil is more or less 

 suiud to its growth; it will even grow tolerably Wvil in 

 bog-meadows, when laid sufficiently dry. I* will produce 

 considerably on the poorest soils; and prodigious crops of 

 it may be raised on such as are made very rcn, us may be 

 seen from a case reported by Mr. L'Hommeditu. 



A Neighbor of his manured twenty square rods ot ground 

 with lour thousand Monhaddan n%h, and sowed it vutn rye. 

 In the Spring, u was twice successively eaten i;ff, close to 

 the ground, by Sheep breaking in, afier it had inquired a 

 height of nine inches the first time, and six inches the lat- 

 ter. These cropings, however, only served to make it 

 grow thicker and stronger than before ; and, when harvest- 

 ed, it produced sixteen bushels, or, at the rate of one hun- 

 dred and twenty-eight bushels to the acre; giving to ihe 

 Owner, according to the calculation of Mr L'Hommedieu, 

 at the rate of eighty-five dollars to the acre, of clear profit. 



He supposes, however, that the crop would have been 

 entirely lost, had it not been twice eaten off by the Sheep. 

 It is said that prodigious crops of wheat may be raised in 

 the same manner. 



Rye is subject to rust, but seldom or never to smut ; nor, 

 indeed, to any other disease that we know ol, in this Coun- 

 try. M Du liamel makes mention of a disease it is subject 

 to in France, called the */mr, which causes a dry gangrene 

 in the extreme parts of ihe bodies of those who eat th 

 grain thus diseased ; so that these parts at length fall off, 

 almost without pain. 



< The Hotel Dieu, at Orleans (says this Author) has lud 

 many of these miserable Objects, who had not any thing 

 more remaining than the bare trunk of the body; and yet 

 lived, in that condition, many days.' 



The grains thus diseased are larger than the rest, mostly 

 crooked, bitter to the taste, rough, deeply furrowed from 

 end to end, and project considerably beyond their husks, 

 It is not every year, however, that the spur produces these 



