172 FORAGE CROPS. 



for a time and with profit, by sheep, even when 

 they are to be harvested for the grain which 

 they produce. 



WINTER RYE. 



Of the cereals, rye (Secale cereale) is beyond 

 all question the most suitable for forage uses. It is 

 an annual, and, therefore, it is usually necessary to 

 sow it every year. But instances are on record in 

 which it has been pastured for a period considerably 

 longer than a year, by keeping it eaten off closely. 

 The various kinds of rye may be divided into two 

 classes, one of which is known as winter rye and the 

 other as spring or summer rye. The winter varie- 

 ties are much more valuable than the spring varieties 

 in providing pasture, since the former are frequently 

 grazed both autumn and spring, whereas the latter 

 furnish pasture for a short season only in the early 

 part of summer. The great value of winter rye as 

 a forage plant is not as generally understood as it 

 ought to be, or much more of it would be sown to 

 grow forage. 



Distribution. — Rye can be grown for pasture in 

 all, or nearly all, the tillable portions of the United 

 States. Where lands are irrigated, it may not 

 always be profitable to grow rye for pasture, but, of 

 course, on these it may be thus grown, and in great 

 perfection. As a forage crop it will probably be 

 more valuable relatively in those areas where grasses 

 and sorghums do not grow at their best. Hence, it 

 may be made to render peculiar service in providing 

 forage in all parts of the upper Mississippi basin, 

 and in the regions of Canada which drain into Hud- 

 son Bay. In some portions, however, of the 



