132 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



to subdu3 the weeds, and that the crops yearly increased in- 

 stead of diminishing.' But this, it is said, will not be the 

 case, unless the soil is naturally of a good quality, and the 

 stubble be con^.pletely turned under immediately after reap- 

 ing. If the ground is suffered to remain after harvest with- 

 out being ploughed till the stubble is dried and shrivelled so 

 that it possesses but little substance, and the seeds of weeds 

 have had time to ripen, the crops of grain in each succeeding 

 year will be diminished, and the weeds will take an almost 

 exclusive possession of the soil. 



The Fanner's Assistant is opposed to the raising of suc- 

 cessive crops of rye, unless as much as twenty-five bushels 

 of this grain can be yearly had from the acre ; as such an 

 annual product would probably afford a clear profit to the 

 acre of half that number of bushels ; and such a profit, he 

 observes, in some of the lighter and in some of the harder 

 kinds of soil is not to be despised. The same writer re- 

 commends sowing winter rye and spring rye alternately, in 

 order that the ground might, every other year, be enriched 

 by the application of gypsum. ' The growing crop of rye,' 

 he says, ' receives no benefit from the application of this ma- 

 nure ; but it quickly covers the ground with a fine sward of 

 white clover ; and as soon as the ground is thus swarded, it 

 is in good condition for bearing any crop. Let the gypsum, 

 therefore, be sown in the spring, on the growing crop of 

 winter rye, and by the middle of October following the 

 ground will be covered with white clover ; turn this sward 

 over in the latter end of the fall, and in the spring sow a 

 crop of spring rye ; and, as soon as this is taken off, turn 

 the ground over again for a crop of winter rye ; and in the 

 spring repeat the process of manuring with gypsum, as be- 

 fore, for a crop of spring rye ; and thus proceed with these 

 crops alternately.' 



Some sow their winter rye at the last hoeing of Indian 

 corn, and hoe it in ; and this Dr. Deane observed was a good 

 practice when it is sown on fiat land, or on a rich or heavy 

 soil, where grain is apt to suffer by the frost of winter ; for 

 the plants of rye will be mostly on the corn hills, and so 

 escape injury from frost ; at least they will most commonly 

 escape, or so many of them as are necessary to give a good 

 crop. The plants that are killed will be those in the low 

 spaces betwixt the hills. 



Txye is not only a proper crop on land which is too poor 

 to produce a good crop of wheat, but it should be sown on a 



