CHAPTER XXIX 



RYE (Secale cereale) 



RYE is an annual, winter-growing, cereal grass of minor 

 importance in the cotton-belt. The relatively small 

 acreage devoted to this crop in the south is utilized pri- 

 marily for pasture or soiling purposes. On poor sandy 

 soils it makes an excellent green-manure. When rye is 

 allowed to mature the grain is used as a human food or 

 for stock, the straw being largely used for bedding for 

 domestic animals. Rye straw is also used in the manufac- 

 ture of paper, and for packing fruit trees and other articles 

 for shipment. 



418. Origin and nativity. According to Hackel, 

 the original species of rye is a perennial grass (Secale 

 montanum) once found growing wild in the mountains 

 of the Mediterranean countries from Spain and Morocco 

 to Central Asia. This wild form has a jointed rachis which 

 breaks apart upon ripening. This character and also the 

 perennial habit have been lost under cultivation. The 

 existence of rye in the wild state at the present time is 

 said to be doubtful. 



419. Description. The culms of rye are more slender 

 and much taller than those of wheat, growing sometimes 

 to a height of six to seven feet on rich soils. The inflores- 

 cence is a long, slender, distinctly compressed, profusely 

 bearded spike. The spikelets are two-flowered. Each 

 flower produces three stamens. As the two flowers in a 

 spikelet develop about equally the rye spike is distinctly 



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