OTHER FORAGE PLANTS— COMMON RYE. 127 



Common Rye. 



(Secale cereale.) 



Moeton's Uncydopcedia says that Eye is extensively 

 and increasingly cultivated as a forage crop for early 

 spring feeding. Cultivated as a grain crop it is an 

 exhauster of the soil, but when fed off green the crop 

 improves and ameliorates. As a green crop it follows 

 wheat, and is itself succeeded by a late crop of turnips. 

 For a green crop, the rule is to sow as thickly as pos- 

 sible — namely, from three to four bushels — sometimes 

 drilled, but more generally broadcast. 



The chief use of Eye as a forage crop is to supply 

 food for sheep and lambs in the spring, in the interval 

 that elapses after the turnips are consumed. This 

 Eye is sown on the root-fallow, and is followed by 

 white turnips. Eye is peculiarly suited for animals 

 giving milk, as ewes and milch cows ; to the latter it 

 may be given with the addition of straw chaff. As a 

 soiling crop its chief advantage is its earliness. When 

 in a forward state it is mown for horses ; but the best 

 method of applying it is by being cut into chaff with a 

 mixture of straw and hay, increasing the proportion of 

 green to dry fodder as the season advances. Green 

 Eye, from its laxative nature, requii-es this addition; 

 and this application is useful as supplying a gradual 

 change from the dry food of winter to the green food of 

 summer. 



From the toughness and pithy nature of Eye straw 

 it is little liked by cattle, and is of slight use as fodder. 

 It is probably, however, the most nutritious of any, as 



