MANURES. 91 



vocate of rye as a fertilizer. His first experience of its value 

 was by accident. Wishing to grow a few acres of melon seed 

 one season, after all his own land was occupied, he rented a piece 

 of land on which rye was growing and plowed it under. The 

 season proved dry, and while his crop was almost a failure on 

 his own land which had been liberally manured, he found that 

 the land on which the rye had been plowed under was loose and 

 moist through the entire season, and produced a good crop. For 

 several years after, until his death, Mr. Root made use of 

 rye on all land wanted for late crops, and each year added 

 to his appreciation of its value. In 1875 he wrote " I 

 can not say that it adds as much to the fertility of the 

 soil as forty two-horse loads of manure, but I do say that 

 in dry seasons it produces as great an increase of crop. It 

 certainly pays to use it largely even on land well supplied 

 with stable manure." 



I would recommend, when rye is sown for the purpose of 

 plowing under, that two bushels of seed be used to the acre, 

 and if the land is poor I would use some fertilizer to give the 

 rye a start. In my own experience I have found the effect of 

 rye quite lasting in the soil, and it gave a larger increase of the 

 corn crop the second year than the year it was plowed down. 

 Taking into consideration all the advantages of this crop, its 

 hardiness, the ease with which it can be put in, its adaptation to 

 poor soils, and the short time in which it will produce a large 

 amount of vegetable matter to turn under, I can recommend it 

 most heartly as a green manure. 



Buckwheat is another quick-growing crop and can be sown 

 in July, when, as is sometimes the case, the farmer fails to get a 

 stand of clover. Where the entire season's growth is to be devoted 

 to enriching the land, rye could be plowed under early in May 

 and buckwheat sown, and plowed under in July, and a second 

 crop of buckwheat sown, which would be large enough to plow 

 under before frost. Mr. Harlan tells of a crop of buckwheat 

 which he grew, that in fifty-one days, (between July 14th and 

 September 3d,) made a growth of twenty-seven tons to the 

 acre. The advantages of this crop are its rapid growth, which 



