180 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Fur the Xcw England Fanner. 

 WINTER RYE WITHOUT MANURE. 



Mr. Editor : In the Cultivator of August 7, 13i2, 

 I made some remarks on raising winter rye, and have 

 not seen fit to change my opinion from that time. 

 Rye bread, if not so palatable as wheat, is quite as 

 conducive to the health of a New England constitu- 

 tion as bread made of wheat. The soil being better 

 adapted to it here, the bread made from it may be 

 better jitted to the health of the inhabitants where it 

 flourishes best : how that may be, I leave each one to 

 be his own judge. As the state of the markets are 

 now, no farmer will expect to make his fortune by 

 raising and selling rye ; but every one who has 

 suitable land for the crop can supply himself with a 

 better article, and at less expense from his own soil, 

 than he can by transporting it from the Western 

 States. Not but that the rye is naturally excellent 

 produced at the west ; but a large proportion of it is 

 damaged before it reaches us, by carelessness or bad 

 management in harvesting and curing of it, or 

 injured by those little villanous hordes of quadru- 

 peds that infest their granaries : having no regard for 

 any law enacted by General Court, they defile it with 

 their filthy excrements, which renders the flavor bad, 

 beside disgusting us with their filth. Grain brought 

 from a great distance is very liable to imbibe damp- 

 ness and become musty, especially if transported by 

 water, and is unfit for bread. 



Formerly farmers raised and used more rye in their 

 families than at present. I think, if I may judge from 

 appearances, that the change from rye to wheat has 

 not added "one cubit to the stature," not one degree 

 of strength or health to the present generation. From 

 the close of the revolutionary war to the nineteenth 

 centurj', many of the farmers, inhabiting the rye 

 districts in this county, did not use fourteen pounds 

 of wheat flour in their families in a year : at election, 

 some of the more able ones would purchase seven 

 pounds to make election cake and pie crust for the 

 upper surface, while the under crust, not in so con- 

 spicuous a situation, was made of rye. AVhen one 

 ventured to purchase fourteen pounds for thanks- 

 giving, he was considered by his more economical 

 neighbors as committing an extravagance which they 

 could not indulge in. Now, it is a conmion practice 

 for a farmer to tumble into his store room from four to 

 ten or twelve barrels a year for the use of his family. 



My remarks, in this communication, will relate 

 particularly to raising rye on old, worn-out plains and 

 pasture lands, where it would be unreasonable to 

 expect a yield which would compare with the crops 

 produced on highly manured aud cultivated fields. 

 As a statement of facts produces the most weighty 

 arguments in favor of any pursuit, I will relate my 

 method of raising a crop of rye in ISiS. 



In June, 1847, wc ploughed about two and a half 

 acres of old pasture ground, which was completely 

 exhausted by having four crops of rye and corn 

 taken oft' in succession : the last one would hardly 

 pay the labor of harvesting. A part of the land was 

 a light, sandy soil, a part was compact and gravelly, 

 and a part was a dark, sandy loam, and all pretty 

 well elevated: this land had lain fifteen years as 

 pasture, and had produced but little feed. The 

 twenty-third day of August, the land was harrowed 

 ■with an iron harrow till it was completely pulverized ; 

 then nearly one and a half bushel of rye was sown 

 upon the whole lot, and then harrowed again with 

 the same harrow, and at last swept over with a bush 

 harrow, to finish the process. The weather being 

 very dry, the rye did not come up till the first of 

 September ; then it grew rapidly till winter com- 

 menced. In July, 1848, the straw was from five to 

 six feet high. When the rye was ripe, it Avas reaped 

 and bound in bundles, and set heads upward in my 



barn until perfectly dry, (instead of stowing it in a 

 mow, " as the manner of some is,") which is, to the 

 lover of sweet bread, a most important part of the 

 work. A\'hen rye is stowed in a mow, if it is appa- 

 rently dry, it is apt to attract a dampness, if it is not 

 retained in tlie straw, aud, after continuing in the 

 mow a few weeks becomes musty, and causes a disa- 

 greeable, bitter taste in the clammy bread made of 

 it. As soon as the rye was well cured, it was 

 threshed out, and yielded from sixteen to twenty 

 bushels to the acre of clean rye. On poor, unma- 

 nurcd land, feeding rye down by cattle or sheep, 

 either fall or spring, is very injvu-ious, by retaixling its 

 growth and subjecting it to blight ; and I am entirely 

 opposed to having any of the first year's growth fed 

 off" by animals If there should be a rank growth of 

 leaves, they serve for a winter protection, and, on de- 

 caying, benefit the soil. Most of our light soils will 

 produce a crop of rye once in five or more years, 

 without manure ; and if redtop seed be scattered in 

 with the rye, they will furnish cattle or sheep with 

 better pasturage than they would to lie unploughed ; 

 and I think the land suff'ers little or no deterioration 

 by being thus cropped once in seven years. 



N. B. To all lovers of fruit, and' all raisers of 

 fruit for the market, lean conscientiously recommend 

 " Cole's American Fruit Book " as a cheap and ex- 

 cellent work, adapted to a large section of the United 

 States. SILAS BliOWN. 



Wilmington, Mass., May 4, 1849. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CULTIVATION OF INDIAN CORN. 



Friend Cole : Thinking it may be of some little 

 interest to a portion of your readers, I will give you 

 a brief statement of the character of the soil, and 

 cultivation of one acre and ten rods of corn ground, 

 which produced a fraction over one hundred and 

 nineteen bushels of shelled corn, weighing sixty-two 

 and three fourths of a pound per bushel. 



The land on which the corn was grown has a 

 south-eastern slope, and is mostly of a flint and blue 

 limestone soil — deep, rich, and dry. In 1847, two 

 thirds of said land was sown to corn fodder, and had 

 no maniire ; the remainder was well manured, — but 

 I am unable to state the quantity, — and sown to beets 

 and ruta bagas. In the spring of 1848, I spread 

 thirty loads (forty to forty-five bushels to the load) 

 of green barn-yard manure on the land, and ploughed 

 it in, running the plough about ten inches deep. I 

 then spread on fifteen loads of well rotted compost, 

 equal parts of yard manure and rich swamp muck. 

 This Avas thoroughly harrowed in. 



The second week of May, the ground was marked 

 out into rows at the distance of three feet and four 

 inches, and cross-marked at the distance of twenty- 

 seven inches, and the twelve-rowed variety of corn 

 planted in the angles thus formed, covering the corn 

 about two inches deep. I think it of some little im- 

 portance to have the ground marked out. It can 

 be planted in less time : there is no hesitation for the 

 eye to measure distances, and as each hill will have 

 its just proportion of soil, more corn can be grown 

 on the same ground, besides having the rows so 

 straight that the cultivator can be used with much 

 better eff'cct. 



Another advantage of having the land thus marked 

 out is, that the roots of corn \\\\\ receive more light 

 and heat from the sun, especially when the plants 

 are young ; and for the same reason it is best to have 

 the widest rows run as near north and south as 

 practicable. 



The corn was hoed three times, using the cultiva- 

 tor ])revious to each hoeing, and keeping the hill as 

 level as practicable. 



