AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUr.LISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 62 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agiiicui.tui.al Wabehoo8k.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 27, 1842. 



[NO. 4. 



N. E. FARMER. 



WINTER RYE FOR EARLY SPRING FEED. 



Tlie following^ article, which we copy from ihe 

 Journal of llie Royal .Af;riciiltural Society of Eng. 

 land, is worthy of attention by many farmers in 

 this country. The length of our winter.^, and the 

 lateness of tlie season helore our cows and young 

 stock can get a good supply of feed from our pas- 

 tures, render it very desirable to find some article 

 which may answer for feeding or soiling earlier 

 than any that is in general use among us. Rye is 

 sometimes sown for feed, but when it loolis well, 

 the fanner is reluctant to turn in his cattle upon it. 

 But its lii.xuriance would not be objected to by his 

 stock, and he must get over his compunctions. 

 Our Indian corn crop affords us an opportunity to 

 re.<ort to the rye more conveniently than the Eng- 

 lish farmer can. We can sow our seed at the 

 last time of hoeing the corn, and the work is done. 

 The great obstacle in the way here is, the fact that 

 our corn in most cases covers only a part of the 

 field, and we cannot feed the rye without turning 

 other lands out to pasture also. With us, unless 

 we go more extensively into the cultivation of tur- 

 nips or some other crop that can be sowed later 

 llian we generally do, we must give up the land to 

 the rye for an entire year. But we think this 

 would be good husbandry for many farmers whose 

 pastures are short. 



Tlie article below was based upon English soil 

 and climate — but the necessary adaptations to our 

 circumstances, any farmer is competent to make. — 

 Ed. N. E. F. 



ON EARLY SPRING FEED. 



BY MATTHEW M. SIILECU.N. 



The increased quantity of stock which the far- 

 mer is enabled to keep by the introduction and 

 successful cultivation of green crops, requires liis 

 best attention to furnish them with a coustant sup- 

 ply of green food, especially such portion of his 

 stock as are not intended for fattening. The use 

 of the artificial grasses on arable land in summer, 

 and of turnips in the winter, has been brought as 

 near perfection as may be ; but it is quite certain 

 that the wants of the sheep and cattle, from the 

 time when llie turnips are consumed to that when 

 the grasses become available, are not equally well 

 provided for. In order.as far as possible, to reme- 

 dy this deficiency, recourse has been had to the 

 cultivation of turnips which long retain their nutri- 

 tious qualities, and the swede has been truly inval- 

 uable for this purpose. But while these roots have 

 furnished very palatable and nutritious food for one 

 portion of the stock, they have altogether failed for 

 I the young — tiie principal object of the breeder's 

 anxiety. For as well as having an abundant flow 

 of milk from tiie dam, every breeder is desirous of 

 training the young slock to help themselves as 

 soon as lliere is food of a proper quality available 

 for them; and if the young lambs in particular are 

 kept from green food until tliey are turned into the 

 gross clover leys with their dams, there is great 



danger that a portion of them will be lost. It is 

 generally desirable to keep the clover leys free at 

 least until May, and long before that time the young 

 stock should be trained to cat a considerable por- 

 tion of green food. 



With the view of supplying this want, several 

 crops have been cultivated for early feud in the 

 spring, with gieater or less success, and under 

 greater or less disadvantage, according to circum- 

 stances, but the farmer who occupies a poor soil 

 is, more than any other, under the necessity of 

 grappling with the difficulties he may have to con- 

 tend with ; for lateness of vegetation and certain 

 destruction of his crops of grass, are sure to be the 

 consequence if he break into them before they at- 

 tain a proper degree of maturation, and yet he has 

 also the greatest difficulties to surmount in culti- 

 vating any spring crop. 



The fanner, on the other hand, who cultivates 

 rich fertile land, where he has a deep alluvial soil, 

 growing every crop luxuriantly, can easily free a 

 pasture early in the autumn, and have it full of 

 young grass as early as he may require it, and 

 knows nothing of the difficulties which attend his 

 less favored neighbor. 



The avidity with which any new variety of 

 grass or plant promising early growth is tried, indi- 

 cates how desirable a point it is to secure an early 

 supply of succulent food. At one time it was 

 hoped that this desideratum was discovered in the 

 crimson trefoil. 



The winter tare is one of the most valable escu- 

 lents for stock in possession of the cultivator, and 

 affords the greatest bulk of nutriment of any culti- 

 vated green crop, turnips perhaps e.\cepted, and is 

 relished at all seasons and by every kind of stock. 

 It is sometimes resorted to for depa.sturation in the 

 spring, with a view to subsequent soiling, but it is 

 after all rather a summer than a sprinfc crop ; and 

 it is more than problematical that the injury done 

 to the crop by spring feeding upon it, is greater 

 than the amount of spring food thus obtained. If 

 it be worth while to have a supply of early Ired, it 

 is worth while clearly to provide a crop specially 

 lor that purpose. As a spring crop, according to 

 the writer's observation and experience, it is de- 

 cidedly inferior to olher cultivated plants. 



The writer of this paper has seen rye-grass very 

 successfully cultivated as early spring feed sown 

 alone. It requires to be sown a whole year before 

 it is fit to consume, and thus lies open to the objec- 

 tion of interfering with good husbandry, particular- 

 ly the hoeing of the corn crop, with whicli it is 

 sown a whole year before, as well as preventing 

 the plowing of the land for the same period ; thus 

 encouraging the growth of quitch and weeds, while 

 the adhesion of the soil which it produces, and the 

 accumulation of roots, &c. very materially prevent 

 its kindly working for the crop intended tu follow. 



The above remarks are made on the supposition 

 that the rye grass is introduced as a half crop, for 

 it must be quite clear to every practical farmer 

 that there is no sound practice in throwing away a 

 whole year's crop for the .sake of one month's feed 

 in the spring, valuable as it undoubtedly is. The 



trials above mentioned which the writer has leen, 

 have been with Pacey'a rye grass, and though 

 the Italian rye grass would furnish n greater por- 

 tion of food, supposing it tillered as much as Pa- 

 cey's, which is not the case, yet it is liable to all 

 the above objections, and from the observation of 

 the writer it appears exceedingly doubtful whether 

 it will bear an equal degree of frost to Pacoy's. 



It is the intention of the writer now to state his 

 experience, and offer his recommendation of a crop 

 embracing all the advantages of the preceding, and 

 several peculiar to itself. It is that of rye, eaten 

 in the early stages of its growth. It is intended to 

 intervene between the last crop of the four-course 

 system, which is generally wheat, and to be eaten, 

 and the land plowed and worked for a crop of tur- 

 nips. It is equally applicable to all kinds of rota- 

 tions, and would well precede a fallow or a crop of 

 rape. As it is generally upon farms where the 

 four-course system is pursued that spring feed is 

 most wanted, the writer will confine his observa- 

 tions to that rotation. 



So soon as the wheat is cut in the autumn, the 

 plow should be set to work. This may be done 

 even before it is carted, during the mornings of 

 harvest. A single plowing is given, and a very 

 slight dressing of any kind of short manure. In 

 some cases where the farmer lays on his manure in 

 the autumn, for turnips the ensuing year, it might 

 be better to lay it on before the plowing. It should 

 be remembered that the slight dressing should not 

 all be considered as given to the rye ; in reality it 

 becomes incorporated with the soil, and more inti- 

 mately mixed with it than by the ordinary mode of 

 spreading it on in the autumn, and any part of it 

 which the rye may abstract, will be more than 

 compensated by the droppings of the stock and the 

 carbonic acid gas which ihey evolve while consu- 

 ming it; and which the'soil more readily absorbs 

 in the spring than in any other part of the year, 

 evaporation going on at that period to a much small- 

 er extent than in any other. 



The seed must be sown upon the plow-seam 

 broadcast, at the rate of 2 1-2 bushels per acre, 

 and if of that year's growth, so much the better, as 

 it is earlier and more certain of germination. To 

 this a peck of rapeseed per acre should be added ; 

 for alihough the latter is notable to stand a winter 

 when the frost sets in early and severe, in many 

 cases it will get sufficiently vigorous to resist any 

 ordinary frost, and will much improve the feed in 

 the spring. Should the rape not be sown, n peck 

 of winter-tares per acre will improve the feed, or 

 an additional peck of rye rnay be added ; as a full- 

 er bite and excited growth in its early stages will 

 be secured — a point gained when wanted to depas- 

 ture, although it might be injurious if sown for a 

 crop. 



In cultivating rye as feed there need be no fears 

 entertained of its becoming "winter proud," for as 

 that only affects the ears of the corn, it is a cir- 

 cumstance of no importance, and therefore the ear- 

 lier it is sown the better able it is to resist the 

 early frosts, as well as having a better cover and 

 more feed when wanted. When sown it should bo 



