CULTURE OF RYE. 269 



comes more into tlic sphere of our experience, and seems a 

 cereal especially fitted to our New England soil, and grows 

 finely on the poor, gravelly and sandy lands of Massachusetts. 



We have no doubt it will pay for high cultivation ; but it will 

 also be remunerative and profitable where less expenditure of 

 manure and care is made. 



It wants a warm, silicious soil, and a top-dressing, upon deeply 

 ploughed land, of wood-ashes, and muck or guano, bone-dust, 

 stable manure, or superphosphate of lime — and you may be sure 

 of a crop of rye. Thirty bushels of ashes, two hundred pounds 

 of guano, or three or four hundred pounds of superphosphate — 

 and you will have it heavily manured for rye. We believe that 

 M. Ville's theory holds even here, and that by the use of 

 muck, for example, you get an absorbent which gathers from 

 the atmosphere ammonia, and in the potash both a mechanical 

 manure and a solvent, preparing silica for the food of the plant. 



Winter rye thrives best, and the character of it is finer and 

 the berry more plump. We are aware that rye will thrive on 

 new lands where they are thoroughly harrowed only ; but upon 

 the light and gravelly land, where we usually raise rye, we 

 should by all means plough deep, and work the manure in 

 from the surface with a harrow or cultivator. Sow early ; on 

 old ground the last of August or first of September. There is 

 little danger of getting it in too early. 



It is called an exhausting crop for the land ; but we do not 

 regard it especially so. We think also our farmers are not 

 aware how well it pays for the cultivation. With a ready 

 sale of straw at twenty dollars a ton, and the grain at one 

 dollar and a half a bushel, with so small a yield as twenty 

 bushels per acre, the gross proceeds are about sixty-five dol- 

 lars. This we think leaves a net profit to the farmer, on the 

 outlay, larger by far than the many per cent, profit claimed 

 by some of our manufacturers on their goods. 



Rye has fine fattening qualities ; it is less suitable for horses 

 and neat stock, but is a cheap, nutritious, palatable food for 

 man. 



OATS, 



However, as another of the family of cereals, are far more ex- 

 haustive of the soil than rye. The oat is also an uncertain crop. 

 It is the favorite of a cold, moist climate. As a spring grain, 



