44 



Rye. 



Vol. II. 



loads from the hogpen, the other half with 

 the same quantity of the best manure the 

 barn-yard atJbrded. A visible difference was 

 to be seen in the growth of the corn through 

 the season, and at the time of harvest the 

 difference was still more discernible. That 

 part manured from the hogpen produced ears 

 generally much larger than tiiat manured 

 from the barn-yard, a great proportion of the 

 stalks bearing two, and many of them three 

 ears each. Having harvested and measured 

 my corn, I found the result to be as follows : 

 the produce of the part manured from the 

 hogpen fifty bushels, while that of the other 

 part was but forty-two bushels, making a 

 difference of eight bushels in favor of the for- 

 mer. I have lately taken twenty-eight loads 

 of strong manure from my hog-yard, which 

 has been collected the past year, and which 

 will be a sufficient quantity to manure two 

 and a half acres in the hill ; and should the 

 difference be as great in its favor the next as 

 it has been this year, the extra produce will 

 more than repay the whole expense of mak- 

 ing the manure. 



Manures may be divided into two classes. 

 The one is called animal and vegetable or 

 putrescent manures. They consist of decayed 

 and decaying animal and vegetable sub- 

 stances. The other class is denominated 

 fossil manures. The last mentioned do not 

 properly constitute the food of plants, alth.ough 

 they enter into the composition of vegetables 

 in minute quantities. Fossil manures stimu- 

 late plants, and cause them to take their food 

 faster than they otherwise would. They are 

 like what medical men call condiments, and 

 answer the same purpose as respects the 

 economy of vegetables, which salt, pepper, 

 spices, &c. effect as regards the animal 

 economy. 



Rye. 



The farmer who has it in his povi^er to 

 drive his business, instead of being driven by 

 it, will do well to sow his winter rye some- 

 where between the middle of August and the 

 1.5th of September. The advantage of sow- 

 ing early is, that it is less apt to winter-kill, 

 will require less seed, the growth will be 

 stouter, and the produce greater, other tilings 

 being equal, than if the sowing was deferred 

 till late in autumn. Foreign writers assure 

 us that winter and spring rye are one and 

 the same species. The editor of the Farm- 

 er's Assistant says, " there is but one kind of 

 rye ; but this may be made either winter rye, 

 or spring rye, by gradually habituating it to 

 different times of sov;ing. Take winter rye, 

 for instance, and sow it later and later, each 

 fall, and it may at length be sown in the 

 spring ; and then it becomes spring rye. On 



the contrary, sow spring rye very late in the 

 fall, at first, and you may gradually sow it 

 earlier each succeeding year, until it may 

 even be sown in May, and used the first sea- 

 son for pasture, or mowing, and tiien grown 

 to perfection the second year. Soils of a 

 sandy or gravelly texture are the most na- 

 tural for rye. Almost every kind of dry soil 

 is more or less suited to its growth ; it will 

 even grow tolerably well in bog meadows, 

 when laid sufficiently dry. It will produce 

 considerably on the poorest soils ; and prodi- 

 gious crops of it may be raised on such as are 

 made very rich, as may be seen from a case 

 reported by Mr. U Hommedieu. A neighbor 

 of his manured twenty square rods of ground 

 with four thousand ftlonhaddan fish, and 

 sowed it with rye. In the spring, it was 

 twice successively eaten off, close to the 

 ground, by sheep breaking in after it had ac- 

 quired a height of nine inches the first time, 

 and six inches the latter. These cropings, 

 however, only served to make it grow thicker 

 and stronger than before; and, when har- 

 vested, it produced sixteen bushels, or, at the 

 rate of one hundred and twenty-eight bushels 

 to the acre ; giving to the owner, according 

 to the calculation of Mr. U Homme dieu, 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 hy 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 of, in this country. M. Du 

 Hamel makes mention of a disease it is sub- 

 ject to in France, called the sjmr, which 

 causes a dry gangrene in the extreme parts 

 of the bodies of those who eat the grain thus 

 diseased ; so tliat these parts at length fall 

 off, almost without pain. ' The Hotel Dieu, 

 at Orleans (says this Author) has had 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 effects in that coun- 

 try ; and if the grain be kept some consider- 

 able length of time, before it is eaten, it will 

 not prove hurtful. We notice this disease of 

 rye, in order that, if similar effects should 

 ever be produced from it here, the cause ef 

 any such malady, and the means of obviating 

 it, may be more readily understood. 



Rye may be raised for many years in suc- 

 cession on the same ground, without ma- 

 terially exhausting the soil, particularly if it 



