AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS. 71 



preparing winter and spring pasture ; or the ground may be 

 prepared as for wheat, or oats, the rye planted from August to 

 December. But as it is sown in the south almost exclusively 

 for winter pasture, the earlier it can be put in the better, provi- 

 ded it is not so early as to joint before it can be pastured. A 

 bushel and a half per acre should give a good catch : if planted 

 early and the ground in good condition a bushel may do. 



It grows well on any good, well drained soil, but requires less 

 clay and moisture than wheat or barley, and more sand and pot- 

 ash. My objections to it as a grazing plant are stated in treat- 

 ing of barley. 



Rye yields a light crop of grain but it is very nutritious. 

 The straw is hard and almost worthless for fodder. But it 

 is worth ten or fifteen dollars a ton to the manufacturers of hats, 

 bonnets, paper, mats and many other articles. To be very val- 

 uable, however, for most manufactures, a special machine, in- 

 vented for the purpose, must be used in threshing it so as to 

 keep the straw straight and unbroken. 



In Europe, rye and wheat are often sown together, producing 

 the mixture called meslin, from which the most wholesome of all 

 breads is made. Rye may be grown longer on the same land 

 than most other crops. 



When seeding, if the season be wet, it is very liable to a fun- 

 goid disease, producing what is called ergot, the grain assu- 

 ming somewhat the shape of a cock's spur and hence called spur- 

 red rye. These spurs are filled with a dark mass having the 

 odor of spoiled fish. It is very dangerous to people and ani- 

 mals eating it, causing gangrene and death. Yet it contains 

 several valuable medicinal principles ; by the use of which, 

 separated from the poisonous elements, many valuable lives are 

 daily saved. 



HORDEUM. 



1. H. PRATENSE, Wild Barley, Squirrel-tail Grass. 



Only a few years ago, I noticed an occasional specimen 'of this 

 plant in several parts of Mississippi. Next year many acres were 

 densely covered with it. It appears in the latter part of winter 

 and spring, growing from six to ten inches high, sometimes 

 eighteen, with few leaves. Cured for hay it contains according 

 to Knop : water 14.3, albuminoids 9.6, carbohydrates 42.0 and 

 fat 2.0; a fair quantity of nutritive matter. But the plant is so 

 small and light as to be unworthy of attention as a cultivated 

 crop. Stock relish it. 



2. H. PusiLLUM, Barley Grass also is small, growing six to 

 twelve inches high. Cattle relish this grass and it is nutritious ; 

 but the product is too small to justify cultivation. 



3. H. JUBATUM, another Squirrel-tail Grass, widely diffused 

 through our northern States in marshes and moist sands near 



