AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 133 



soil which is very rich, in preference to wheat, because it is 

 less apt to grow so rank as to lodge or blast than wheat. 

 It is a very suitable crop for drained bogs. In the first vo- 

 lume of Communications to the British Board of Agricul- 

 ture, page 341, in speaking of the culture of rye in Kussia, 

 it is observed that the produce from boggy lands drained and 

 sowed with rye is upwards of forty bushels to one sowed ; 

 and they generally use a much smaller quantity of seed in 

 sowing such lands. Another proof that rye will bear very 

 plentiful manuring may be adduced from a case reported by 

 Mr. L'Hommedieu, of New York, who observed, in substance, 

 that a neighbor of his manured twenty square rods of poor, 

 gravelly, dry soil with four thousand Menhaden fish, and 

 sowed it with rye, at the rate of about one bushel to the 

 acre. In the spring it was twice successively eaten ofl^, close 

 to the ground, by sheep breaking in, after it had acquired a 

 height of nine inches the first time, and six inches the latter. 

 Thesj croppings, however, only served to make it grow 

 thicker and stronger than before ; and when harvested it 

 produced sixteen bushels, or at the rate of one hundred and 

 twenty-eight bushels to the acre; giving to the owner, ac- 

 cording to the calculation of Mr. L'Hommedieu, at the rate 

 of eighty-five dollars to the acre of clear profit.^ 



In the Memoirs of the New York Board of Agriculture, 

 vol. i, page 82, it is said, ' Rye should be sowed the last 

 week in August, or the first week in September, at the rate 

 of about thirty-six quarts per acre ; some say forty-eight 

 quarts. But if it is not sowed at that time, it ought to be 

 delayed until late in November, so that it may not come up 

 until spring, A. Worthington had a good crop, which he 

 sowed in a January snow storm. Rye raised on upland 

 makes much better flour than that which is raised on low or 

 damp land.' 



Rye may be sown in autumn to great advantage for green 

 fodder for cattle and sheep, particularly the latter, in the 

 spring. Ewes and lambs will derive much benefit from it, 

 at a time when little or no other green feed can be procured. 

 When it is meant for this purpose it should not only be sow- 

 ed early in autumn, but should be sowed thicker than when 

 it is intended to stand for a crop of seed. Some say that it 



* Transactions of the New York Agricultural Society, part 3, pp. 35, 

 36. This account may seem incredible, but Mr. L'Hommedieu declared 

 that it was attested to by many credible witnesses. 

 12 



