238 DRY LAND FARMING 



Soils that are illy adapted to the growth of rye are 

 those that are over-impregnated with alkali, those that 

 are known as pronounced gumbo, those that consist 

 largely of coarse gravel, and those that are quite shallow 

 and underlaid with hard-pan or rock. Reasonably good 

 crops may be grown where the alkali is not too pro- 

 nounced and also on gumbo soils under some conditions. 

 The chief difficulty with the latter is mechanical. They 

 are not easily tilled. 



Place in the rotation. No cereal grown in dry areas 

 can so readily accommodate itself to a rotation as rye. 

 It would seem correct to say that it may be assigned 

 any place in the rotation, but not, of course, with equal 

 adaptation. 



It will grow excellently well on summer-fallow land 

 or on land that has produced a cultivated crop, but land 

 thus prepared can seldom be spared for rye. It will grow- 

 well on sod land that has been properly prepared. The 

 winter variety may follow a crop, as described below (see 

 p. 239), when it is to be used first as pasture and later 

 for the purpose of providing grain. It may also be 

 drilled in between the rows of standing corn late in the 

 season or sown later if the land can be spared for such 

 a use. Spring rye will follow a grain crop with more 

 of certainty in its growth than almost any other cereal, 

 providing the land has been properly prepared. 



As rye is more commonly sown on land out of con- 

 dition than other crops, the aim should be to follow it 

 with the bare-fallow or with a crop that calls for culti- 

 vation during the period of its growth. 



More commonly rye will follow grain than any of 

 the other cereals for the reason that under such con- 

 ditions it may succeed where other grains will fail. 

 Where the precipitation is considerable in the autumn 

 months, rye may be sown on newly plowed stubble and 

 and yet succeed. Where the rainfall is short, it sue- 



