RUDDLE. 



RYE -GRASS. 



wheat. It has been cultivated from time im- 

 memorial, and is supposed to be a native of 

 the Caspian Caucasian desert. In England 

 it is very little used as an article of food com- 

 pared with wheat and oats, though in the north 

 of Europe, and in Flanders, it forms a princi- 

 pal article of human subsistence, but generally 

 mixed with wheat, and sometimes also with 

 barley. The grains consist of 65-6 of meal, 

 24-2 of husk, and 10-2 of water. The prepa- 

 ration and culture of rye are essentially the 

 same as for wheat; but the same quality of 

 soil is not equally suited to each. Rye grows 

 most luxuriantly for feeding when sown on 

 hazel mould, but any poor, dry, sandy soil is fit 

 for its production. It is sown either broadcast 

 or in drills, in the autumn or spring; but the 

 spring variety is that most hardy and most 

 generally cultivated. The proportion of seed 

 is about two or three bushels per acre when 

 required for a crop, and three bushels and a 

 half when it is intended to be fed off. The 

 meal of rye is considered second only to 

 wheat ; it is often used alone or mixed with a 

 proportion of wheat flour to make bread and 

 gingerbread. In those unaccustomed to its use, 

 it is apt to cause an acescent state of stomach 

 and diarrhoea. Rye is liable to a disease called 

 ergot, which depends on a fungus, which at- 

 tacks and alters the character of the grain. It 

 becomes long, of a deep violet hue externally, 

 and pinkish-white within. The odour of the 

 ergotted grain is fishy and fetid, the taste 

 slightly acrid. Ergotted or spurred rye is poi- 

 sonous, when it is baked into bread. It causes 

 febrile symptoms, great debility, often paraly- 

 sis, tremors, abscesses, gangrene, and death. 

 Some of the epidemics which have occasion- 

 ally nearly depopulated the north of Europe, 

 have been traced to the use of the spurred rye. 

 As green food for sheep, rye is not only valu- 

 able for its early produce, but as producing a 

 flow of milk in the ewes. The straw is highly 

 esteemed for Dunstable work, for thatching and 

 litter ; and is also used to stuff horse-collars. 

 See ERGOT. 



RYE-GRASS or RAY-GRASS (Lolium pe- 

 renne), pi. 5, a. There has been much differ- 

 ence of opinion respecting the merits and com- 

 parative value of rye-grass. It produces an 

 abundance of seed, which is easily collected 

 and readily vegetates on most kinds of soil 

 under circumstances of different management; 

 t soon arrives at perfection, and produces in 

 ts first year of growth a good supply of early 

 herbage, which is much liked by cattle. These 

 merits have no doubt upheld it till the present 

 day in practice, and will probably for some 

 time to come continue it a favourite grass with 

 many farmers. But the latter-math of rye- 

 grass is very inconsiderable, and the plant im- 

 poverishes the soil in a high degree, if the 

 culms, which are invariably left untouched by 

 cattle, are not cut before the seed advances 

 towards perfection. The spike of the Lolium 

 perenne is awnless ; calyx shorter than the 

 spikelets ; floret lanceolate. The varieties of 

 this species are very numerous, such as the 

 slender rye-grass (var. tenue) ; compound or 

 broad-spiked rye-grass (var. compos itum") ; Pa- 



incalculably less valuable in every respect than j cey's rye-grass (var. ranuuum) ; Russell's grass 



4*2 965 



to rub against, and for the protection of the 

 gates, trees, and fences themselves 



RUDDLE or RADDLE. A kind of red 

 earthy ochre, or ironstone, very easily reduced 

 to powder, which is found in several parts of 

 England, especially in Derbyshire; and is used 

 in marking sheep. 



RUE (Ruta graveolens). Rue thrives best in 

 a poor brick earth, in which a portion of cal- 

 careous rubbish has been mixed. It will not 

 endure the application of dung or a rich soil, 

 for although this causes a luxuriant growth in 

 summer, death is as certainly produced by 

 severe frosts. It is propagated by slips and 

 cuttings as well as from seeds ; the first two 

 modes being usually practised as being the 

 most easy. It may be planted or sown any 

 time during the spring. 



RUNCINATE. A botanical term, applied 

 to the lobes of leaves : a leaf is said to be run- 

 cinate when it is irregularly lobed, the lobes 

 gradually diminishing to the base, and hooked 

 backwards. The leaf of the dandelion (Taraxa- 

 cum) is a good example of the runcinate leaf. 



RUNT. A name given to a small kind of 

 black cattle brought from Wales and Scotland. 

 See CATTLK. It is also a term applied to the 

 weak and stunted pigs of a -litter ; also several 

 species of pigeons ; as the Leghorn, Spanish, 

 and Friesland runt. 



RUSH (Juncus ; Linnaeus derived the name 

 from jungo, to join; in allusion to the first 

 ropes being made from rushes). This is 1 an 

 extensive genus of coarse plants, many of them 

 aquatics, which are common on most wet 

 lands. Rushes always intimate a deep, rich 

 soil, and thrive best in land which is too cold 

 and wet for other plants. The growth of these 

 plants may be easily prevented by under or 

 surface draining, which will prevent the stag- 

 nation of water on the soil ; and by the appli- 

 cation of saline or calcareous lop-dressings, 

 such as sand, lime ashes, and road-scrapings. 

 All the species of rush do best cultivated in a 

 moist situation, some of them entirely in water, 

 and others in a peat soil ; they may be in- 

 creased by seeds, or dividing the roots. In 

 Japan they cultivate the soft rush (/. effusus) 

 for making floor-mats. 



Sir J. E. Smith, in his English Flora, enu- 

 merates 23 indigenous species of rush. (Pax- 

 ton's Bot. Diet. ; Smith's Eng. Flor.) 



Of the scirpus genus of plants, which in- 

 cludes the rushes, about 40 species have been 

 found by botanists in the United States. Among 

 these are the club-rush, or marsh scirpus; the 

 bull-rush, which is also called tall club-rush or 

 lake scirpus, which grows so luxuriantly along 

 the shores of the Delaware ; and the brown 

 cotton-grass, or wool-bearing scirpus. 



The species of club-rush commonly met 

 with in the United States are the Scirpus palus- 

 tris, S. obtusis, S. tenuis, which, with the com- 

 mon bull-rush, S. Lacustris, are all worthless 

 occupants of low, wet grounds. (Flora Ces- 

 trica.) 



RUST. See MILDEW. 



RUTA BAGA. See TCRXIPS. 



RYE (Secale cereale ; Germ, roggen dut rog). 

 This species of grain is much more hardy, but 



