122 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



said in these papers, but the patrons of the Farm- 

 ers' Library may be assured that effective meas- 

 ures sliall be taken for the importation of small 

 quantities, sufficient for trial, in this and in all 

 similar cases, lo be distributed among them as 

 soon as we can get time to make the an-ange- 

 ments. In this couutrj' it is known to us that, 

 a.s in England, Lucerne requires that the ground 

 to be dry and clean, and we should think it pro- 

 bable that it might answer to sow it with rj'e or 

 oats, which might assist it in keeping down the 

 weeds the first year, where it is decided to sow 

 it broad- cast, as we have known it to be done, 

 with satisfactory results; but no farmer who 

 drills it will grudge the time given to keep it 

 clean the first year ; at all events it cannot in- 

 terfere injuriously or inconveniently with any 

 but a planter, and even he should try it on some 

 scale. Though there may be nothing very new 

 in these Essays to those who have paid attention 

 to the subject, even they may here have their 

 attention re-drawn to the matter in a way that 

 may at least have the effect of prompting a trial, 

 but, small or large, let it be a. fair one. Let the 

 ground be well manured, as it should for everj- 

 crop, but in this case with either well-rotted ma- 

 nure, or with bones, ashes, or guano, as being 

 the cleanest. Let it, furthennore. be made clean 

 and fine, and sowed [we believe] about twenty 

 pounds of seed to the acre of Lucerne ; or, if 

 Rye, let the ground be, in like manner, thorough- 

 ly well manured and put in fine tilth, and sowed 

 as recommended in these Essays, and we will 

 venture to predict the most gratifying result. If 

 the conditions are complied with, and the ex- 

 perimenter is disappointed, the Eanner.s' Li- 

 brary shall record the false prophecy : 

 ON THE ST. JOHN'S-DAY RYE. 



By PH. PUSEV, M. P. 



Thk late Lord Leicester advised that no 

 fanning experiment should be published until 

 it had been successfully tried for three years. — 

 But thouirh I have not grown the St. John's-day 

 Rye as yet even for two complete years, its 

 promising appearance, and the approval of 

 neighboring farmers, encourage me to lay a 

 short account of this plant before the Society. — 

 It was in 1 842 that Mr. Taunton, of Ashley, near 

 Stockbridge, first made it known to me iu the 

 following terms: 



" In your digest of the progress of agricultu- 

 ral knowledge, j'ou .say, of early Rye, that ' some 

 fai-rners do not approve of it ; for while young it 

 gives but little food, and it shoots up rai)idly to 

 a har.sh stalk, which stock do not relish.' But 

 this reproach does not apply to the variety of 

 Rye which is the best worth cultivating, and, as 

 I think, the only one worth cultivating to any 

 extent for the purpose of green meat — namely, 

 the St. .Tohn's-day Rye, fseigle de Si. Jean. J — 

 This plaiit. if sown in proper time, and on a 

 suitable soil, presents itself to the scythe in a 

 state palatable to horses for full three weeks, or 

 more. I would sow not more than one-fourth 

 of the ground with common Rye by tlie side of 

 '278; 



it, for tlie common Rye is a very few days earli- 

 er, and, by the time w^hen that becomes harsh 

 and woody, the St. John's-day Rye has attained 

 its perfection. Of this latter I have had, on a 

 suitable soil, to the extent of 11 London loadsof 

 straw per acre, when left for seed ; for it will 

 grow from 6 to 7 feet high. The time to sow it 

 is the 24th of June ; at all events get it in before 

 July. The soil for Rye ouirht to be a siliceous 

 soil ; it does not reject a considerable admixture 

 of claj-, but it ought to come under the descrip- 

 tion of a sandy loam. If you want such a bur- 

 then as I have described, of course the conditioa 

 of the .soil must not be poor, and such produce 

 will pay for good land. The soil, too, needs to 

 be compressed after sowmg, if the land be at all 

 light, by rolling or sheep-ti'eading ; otherwise 

 the Rye-plant is peculiarly obnoxious to the 

 wire-worm. The mass of foliage in October 

 would induce you to feed it then ; but I would 

 recommend you to abstain : the leaf (unlike Win- 

 ter barley) is very little changed by the AVinter, 

 and it so cheri.shes the young foliage, which 

 shoots up in Spring covered with this den.sc man- 

 tle, that it will repay j'our forbearance with am- 

 ple interest. I have seen it in the end of Feb- 

 ruary', or beginning of March, equal, if not supe- 

 rior, to the best water-meadow for ewes and 

 lambs ; for soiling in stable, the horses will eat 

 it when the ear is fairly developed— and it may, 

 perhaji-s. be 5 feet high, (according to the soil ;) 

 it will have tillered so much that the produce 

 will be a very heavy one." 



In June of the following year (1(^43) Mr. Taun- 

 ton sent me another account of his furtlier suc- 

 cess in the growth of the St. John's-day Rye : 



" I enclose to you a stalk of my St. John's-day 

 Rye, length 6 feet : it has not yet flo\\'ered. I 

 began to .soil eight cart-horses vi'ith it on the 13th 

 of Rlay, then 3 feet high, and four cows a week 

 later. Both these kinds of stock still eat nearly 

 the whole of it, with scarce any waste ; so that 

 it has now been twenty-two days iu use, and I 

 e.Kpect that they will eat it freely some days 

 longer : thus, you see. extending its eatable state 

 nearly to a month. If I had possessed a greater 

 breadth of this crop in the present season, I 

 should have begun a week earlier, not waiting 

 till it had attained the hiijht of 3 feet. 



" The ground which bore this had a dressing 

 of dung just before sov^'ing. It .succeeded 

 wheat, cut green into stable ; but j-our calcare- 

 ou.s grit detritus- is a far more favoi'able soil for 

 Rye than our chalk. 



" This plant, and, I believe, this variety, 

 proved fatal to hundreds of our brave men on 

 the .sandy plains of Belgium, two days before 

 the battle of \A''aterloo. They marched through 

 fields of it higher than their heads. The glitter- 

 ing points of their bayonets marked the track of 

 their march to the enemy's artillery, which vs-as 

 on an eminence, while the Rye being higher than 

 their head.s, thej' could see no enemy, and knew 

 not whither to direct their fire." 



Mr. Taunton having presented me with some 

 .seed of this Rye, it w as sown in the course of 

 July, 1843, on some poor moory .soil, without 

 manm-c; was fed off in the Autumn, and again 

 in the Spring ; yet produced, on little more ihau 

 a quarter of an acre, 13 bu.shels of seed. That 

 seed was sown again la.st year in August, as 

 soon as har%'ested : it produced on a sandy loam 

 very good feed in the Autumn, and in this back- 

 ward Sj)ring it realised Mr. Taunton's descrip- 

 tion, and established its character here by gov- 



