408 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



RYE FOR BRINQIK-G LIGHT SOIL INTO 

 CONDITION TO PRODUCE ■WHEAT. 



In a former volume of your excellent monthly 

 text-book for farmers, the fact was alluded to, 

 that for some years past, since the spa-it of re- 

 search and improvement (in a large degree due to 

 Liebig's discoveries and inculcations) in agricul- 

 ture more generally set in, large tracts of light, 

 sandy land, some of it so light that it blows and 

 drifts, in Silesia and contiguous districts in Ger- 

 many, had been much improved by the growing 

 and plowing in of successive crops of rye and lu- 

 pins — the lupin being a leguminous plant, a small 

 species of bean. It was shown, that, by plowing 

 in these crops in succession the same season, so 

 much humus or vegetable mold was accumulated 

 in the soil, that its color was changed from that 

 of a light sand to that in appearance of a darkish 

 loam, and its quality from that of a meifaly rye- 

 growing sand to a soil producing faiv crops and 

 quality of wheat. Such, if my memory is correct, 

 were the almost immediate results of this simple 

 means of renovating sandy soils — means not cost- 

 ly, nor difficult, nor laborious, nor tedious of ap- 

 plication, but so simple and easy of demonstration, 

 as to be within the reach of every cultivator of a 

 farm, however limited his means, or the extent of 

 his possessions ; a method of improving poor, 

 light soils, so accessible and economical, that not 

 one of us need allege any other excuse but a want 

 of will and perseverance, if hereafter we allow our 

 light, sandy soils to become unprofitable by reason 

 of a deficiency of humus or vegetable mold in 

 them. 



But my object, at present, was to i-efer to a pe- 

 culiarity of the rye plant — namely, its power of 

 transforming silica or sand itself into its own 

 growth and substance — i. €., that of its straw. 



Rye straw is stiffer than the straw of either 

 wheat or oats, as is shown by its much taller 

 growth, it being equally erect and more elastic 

 than either oat or wheat straw. The greater ex- 

 tent of silicated surface in a crop of rye straw will 

 probably be in excess of that of oats and wheat, 

 for the same number of plants, in about the degree 

 that rye straw is the taller or larger of the three. 

 We cannot determine this with exactitude, nor is 

 this necessary ; for, though their composition is 

 similar, wheat will not flourisli on many soils, for 

 which, in the same condition, rye does tolerably 

 well. (It is to this fact that may, in part, be as- 

 cribed the settlement of Germans on much of the 

 poorest and most sandy land in the West, as for 

 instance the settlement of New Holland, Michi- 

 gan, and the more extensive, though scattered one 

 north of the Fox or Neenah river, Wisconsin. 

 These plodding, industrious and eminently worthy 

 citizens have been familiar with rye on sandy lands 

 in Germany ; and rye bread is their staple food in 

 many instances — hence they can live on lands too 

 ])oor to support costlier habits.) It is, however, a 

 familiar fact that rye will flourish on soil too sandy, 

 too deficient in vegetable mold to produce a crop, 

 or half a one even, of wheat. The question I wish 

 to suggest is : To what peculiar power in the rye 

 plant is this success due ? When both plants 

 grow on similar soil, there is no essential differ- 

 ence in their general composition apparent. But 

 when rye flourishes where wheat will not, where 

 the soil is too sandy, I have long thought such 

 success due in a considerable degree to the power 



of the rye plant to dissolve silica in a greater de- 

 gree than is true of wheat ; because its composi- 

 tion, when grown, shows that it did dissolve, for 

 it comprises more in its straw than wheat does. 



One reason why wheat succeeds after the quan- 

 tity of humus or vegetable matter has been in- 

 creased, is undoubtedly to be found in the greater 

 supply of ammonia or nitrogen, of which wheat 

 requires a little more than rye, that is found as 

 constituent of all vegetable matter in the soil. The 

 substance of rye plowed in, supplies this necessary 

 to wheat. But this does not explain why rye will 

 grow where wheat fails. 



If, as I suspect, the success of rye is due to a 

 peculiar power in dissolving silica more rapidly 

 than is true of any of our other well-known culti- 

 vated plants, then the inference suggests itself 

 that rye is precisely the plant to prepare silica, 

 and perhaps other minerals, for more delicately 

 constituted plants, like wheat, oats and corn. 

 There are certain elementary forms of mineral 

 matter, which some plants have no power, even 

 with the aid of the great transforming agent, oxy- 

 gen, to modify or break up. This may be true as 

 to wheat in relation to crude silica, Other plants 

 differently constituted, in some peculiarity, have 

 such a power. This may be true — and if it is not, 

 I am mistaken — of rye, in relation to crude silica. 



Often, silica has been changed from its crude 

 form by the rye plant, its original crude and, to 

 wheat, unassimilable form, has been broken up 

 and changed, and thus reduced to a different or 

 new form with new proportions suitable for the 

 nutrition and growth of wheat. We know that 

 one animal can digest and assimilate substances 

 that are impossible of digestion with another. And 

 the succession of different species of plants on the 

 same soil proves something like this to be true of 

 vegetables. If rye has this power, it may be 

 turned to good account in bringing the crude min- 

 eral of sandy soils into a condition suitable for the 

 nutrition and growth of wheat, which is of more 

 general importance and value. — J. W. Clarke, 

 in Oenesee Farmer. 



KINO- BIRD versus BEES. 



It is contended by many who have watched 

 them, that the king-bird does not attack and de- 

 vour bees, and by others that they do. But when- 

 ever the bird was shot and examined, no bees 

 were found. The following fact was related to us 

 a few days since by the observer. Happening 

 one day to be near his bees, and in such a position 

 that a bee could be seen at some distance in the 

 air, going from and coming to the hive, he saw 

 a king-bird perched upon a stake near by, who 

 would dart from his perch among the returning 

 bees, make a circuit and return again. Tliis it 

 continued to repeat. He now became fully con- 

 vinced that the bird was catcliing and eating the 

 bees. Upon watching the bird, however, more 

 carefully on his return, he observed that it let 

 something fall each time to the ground. Going 

 to the stake where it had been perched, he found 

 a large number of dead bees scattered upon the 

 ground, every one of which had been burst open, 

 the honey expelled from the sack and eaten by the 

 bird. Tins accounts for no bees being found in 

 the birds when killed, but establishes the fact that 

 they like honey. — Prairie Farmer. 



