GROWING GRAIN CROPS IN DRY AREAS 237 



and with almost unfailing certainty, when it is prop- 

 erly grown. Compared with wheat, it will grow on 

 a poorer soil, in colder latitudes and under drier con- 

 ditions. It is also much more valuable as a pasture crop, 

 owing in great measure to the long period through which 

 it will grow when kept down by rather close grazing. 

 In this way it has been kept in the soil and producing 

 for two or three seasons under conditions peculiarly 

 favorable to its growth. The straw has not as yet been 

 used in certain industries in the west as it has been in 

 the east, but there are no inherent reasons why it should 

 not come to be so used. One of the chief objections to 

 growing it in a country adapted to the growth of winter 

 wheat is the extent to which it volunteers from shat- 

 tered grain. 



Soils. Other things being equal, the returns from 

 rye will be liberal in proportion as the soils on which 

 it is grown are rich in the elements of plant food. But 

 it is usually sown on land relatively low in fertility and 

 under conditions of preparation that are inferior, the 

 better soil, and that also with the better preparation, be- 

 ing reserved for crops that are less able to grow under 

 hard conditions. Rye can gather food more readily from 

 the soil than other small grains, hence the power which 

 it has to grow on poor soils. 



The best soils for rye are those that are deep, rich 

 and friable, and in which the subsoil is reasonably open 

 rather than dense. A sandy loam is more suited to the 

 needs of the crop than a dense clay loam. Under some 

 conditions it may be grown with considerable success 

 on light sands, even light enough to lift more or less 

 with the wind. The largest yields, however, will be ob-/ 

 tained from soils in which the clay element is quite pro- 

 nounced. It would be correct to say that rye may be 

 successfully grown on the major portion of the tillable 

 soils of the semi-arid west. 



