166 THE RYE CROP. 



countries it is looked upon as the first in most, however, 

 as the second in agricultural value. Not only is it com- 

 monly used as a bread -corn as we use wheat, but also 

 largely for brewing and distilling purposes as we use our 

 barley. It is, indexed, the characteristic food-grain of Middle 

 and Northern Europe, and forms the principal sustenance 

 (vegetable) of fully one-third of the population of Europe. 

 In the hilly districts of Central France in Holland and 

 the north of Belgium even in Germany, Russia, and Scan- 

 dinavia, where the land is poor and dry, and the cultiva- 

 tion in a low and impoverished condition, rye is largely 

 grown and generally consumed as food. It has the reputa- 

 tion in these countries of being able to grow on their poor 

 soils without any manure to resist the effects of continued 

 drought not to be injured by the growth of weeds, but in 

 fact to hold its own in spite of them, and to ripen early, and 

 be ready for harvest before either the earth becomes too dry 

 under the influence of the summer heat, or the temperature 

 decreases with the advancing period of the year. 



Thus, says De Gasparin, 1 it can occupy advantageously 

 districts where wheat, more tardy in its habit of growth, 

 could not accomplish its last process of vegetation, and 

 where the physical characters of the soil would be unsuited 

 for any other cereal crop. Von Thaer says, that rye may 

 be considered as the most precious gift of God to the inha- 

 bitants of poor sandy soils. In these countries it is largely 

 used for distilling as well as for feeding purposes, and this 

 double use acts providentially in those seasons of scarcity 

 that tell so severely on a country which relies too con- 

 fidently on a single crop for its principal food supplies. 

 The consumption of rye in the distilleries is very great, 

 and a large store is always kept, greatly in excess of what 

 is immediately needed. As long as grain is plentiful and 

 cheap, the distilleries work and convert it into spirit, but 



1 Cours d' Agriculture, tome iii. p. 676. 



