822 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



must be bad or unfortunate which requires recourse to either mode. In some districts 

 it is customary to sow the head hmds of wheat fields with rye, which is said to keep 

 poultry from penetrating to the wheat. 



5077. The manufacture of rye straw into plait for hats is a new application, for which the public are 

 indebted to Messrs. J. and A. Muir of Greenock, manufacturers of straw hats in imitation of those of 

 Leghorn. Messrs. Muir had previously tried rye grass, crested dog's-tail grass, sweet-scented vernal grass, 

 and the straw of wheat, raised both from British and foreign seed, without success. At last the idea of 

 employing rye straw was suggested to them ; and they now send annually to their establishment in the 

 Orkney Islands (founded by an English gentleman about 1820) " from 40 to 45 bolls, which are sown on 

 about twelve English acres of sandy soil, manured with sea-weed. Several acres of heath for bleaching 

 the straw, and water for steeping it, are required in the neighbourhood of the rye fields. The rye is cut 

 when the seed is beginning to form ; and it is neces.sary to attend to the precise time, for ten days too early 

 or too late produce a considerable difference in the look of the straw. When the rye is cut, women are 

 employed to tie it at the lower extremity in handfuls ; it is then put into boxes, and covered with boiling 

 water, in which it remains for half an hour. After this it is spread out upon the heath in a fan form, and 

 turned twice daily, until the bleaching, which takes about ten days, is completed. If exposed to much 

 rain while bleaching, the straw is injured in colour, and rendered very liable to take mildew. It is of great 

 importance to have the crop well housed." '* The seed of the rye is sown in April, in mossy ground, 

 recently rendered arable ; and if the season is at all ftivourable, it comes into flov/er in July, when it is cut 

 down. The whole stem is then immersed in boiling water, in a trough made for the purpose, and re- 

 mains in this state for two hours. When taken out, it is sjjrcad upon a grass field, and exposed to the 

 sun, till it is properly bleached, which requires from two to four days, according to the weather. When 

 bleached, the stalk is divided into separate parts at each joint, and put up into bundles by the lengths. 

 In this manner, the bundles lie in a proper place till wanted by the plaiters. This last process is done 

 chiefly by old peoi-le, who are unable for the finer work, or by those pupils who have onlv lately joined 

 the manufactory. {Trans. Highl. Soc. vol. vii. pp. 286. and 289.) The mode of plaiting has been already 

 described. ( 5056.) 



5078. Rije is less subject to disease than most other grain, and is even sown among wheat 

 and round wheat fields from an idea that it will keep off blight and mildew as well as 

 poultry. 



5079. The spur or ergot of rye is by some considered as a fungus, a species of Sclerutium, somewhat 

 analogous to that which produces the smut. It is not peculiar to rye, but it is very seldom found on any 

 other gramineous plant. " It is a production of the seeds; is long, horny, and cartilaginous; and is 

 sometimes straight, at others curved ; sometimes it is found more than two inches in length. The re- 

 semblance of this substance to cocks' spurs has given it the name by which it is distmguished. On 

 breaking a spurred seed, you find within it a substance of a dull white colour adhering to the violet skin 

 that surrounds it. Rye thus attacked cannot germinate. M. Tessier remarked that the most rainy years 

 were the most productive of this disease; that the soils on which most spurred rye grew were most moist ; 

 that high grounds were nearly free from them, unless when the furrows prevented the water from running 

 freely off, while the lower parts of the same field produced more than the upper parts." {Brit. Farm, 

 Mag. vol. iii. p. 302.) In France a disease, called the chronic or dry gangrene, has been produced by eating 

 ergot. This disease is also known in Switzerland, where it was observed that most animals refused to eat 

 diseased rye, or rye aff'ected with the cockspur, as it is called. 'l"he Royal Society of Medicine at Paris 

 employed "M. Tessier, a distinguished agricultural writer and man of science, to go into the countries 

 where the dry gangrene prevailed, and collect a sufiicient quantity of the ergot or cockspur rye for expo. 

 riments. The result confirmed the opinion of those who attributed the disease to the cause assigned. 

 " France afforded, also, a simple explanation of the fact that persons might live for a considerable time 

 upon rye affected vvith the cockspur, without suffering any sensible injury from its use; since, in all the 

 animals upon which it was tried experimentally, a given quantity was required to produce the specilic 

 efffect ; and they suggested the only measure, that of separating the diseased from the sound rye, which 

 could prevent so great a national calamity as that which has been so often produced by its use." The 

 spurred rye occasionally occurs in this country, but there are no instances recorded of its producing any 

 such effects as it is said to do in France ; but in the Philosophical Transactions Dr. Wollaston has nar- 

 rated several cases in which dry gangrene was produced in one family by partaking of damaged wheat ; 

 and nearly the same effects were produced in a family in Wiltshire by the iMiura temulentum entering 

 largely into the cor>.*josition of bread. {Stephenson and ChurchiWs Med. Bot. a.it. JSecale.) M. Lagasca 

 states that tlie ergot is covered with a thin pellicle and filled with a grey powder. It is collected in Spain 

 by women and children, who wade in the fields of standing rye for the purpose, and with their utmost 

 vigilance can obtain it taut in very small quantities, in consequence of which it sells high as an article of 

 the materia medica. {Brit Farm. Mag. vol. iii. p. 158.) Medicinally it is used in uterine diseases. 



Sect. III. Barley. Hordeum L. ; Tridndria Digynia L., and Graminea: J. JJ Orge, 

 Fr. ; Gerste, Ger. ; Orzo, Ital. ; JByg, Dan. and Swed. ; and Cebada, Span. 



5080. Barley, though less calculated for a bread corn than rye, may be considered as 

 next in value to wheat in Britain. Of what country it is a native is unknown. Some 

 assio-n it to Tartary, others to Siberia, and even Scotland has been mentioned. It has 

 been cultivated from the earliest antiquity, and was much in use among the Romans, 

 both as food for soldiers and horses. In Sweden and Lapland it is more cultivated than 

 any other grain, on account of its requiring to be so short a period in the soil ; some- 

 times not longer than six weeks, and seldom more than seven or seven and a half. In 

 Soain and Sicily they have two crops a year on the same soil : one is sown in autumn 

 and ripens in May, and the other is sown in May and reaped in autumn. In Britain 

 barley is a tender grain, and easily hurt in any of the stages of its growth, particularly at 

 seed time : a heavy shower of rain will then almost ruin a crop on the best prepared 

 land and ' in all the after processes greater pains and attention are required to insure 

 success than in the case of other grains. The harvest process is difficult, and often 

 attended with danger ; even the threshing of it is not easily executed with machines, 

 because the corn generally adheres to the grain, and renders separation from the straw a 

 troublesome task. 



