152 



on the part of the former, by the shedding of its grain from over-ripe- 

 ness before that of the latter was sufficiently matured. 



In countries where rye is extensively cultivated the grain is often 

 made into malt, and is said to be more valuable for brewing beer than 

 barley malt; more economical it certainly must be, if, as we are 

 informed, a bushel of rye malt is equivalent to at least a bushel and a 

 quarter of that made from barley. The spirit imported under the 

 name of hollands is chiefly distilled from rye. 



Perhaps the greatest recommendation of this valuable cereal to the 

 cultivator consists in its being hardier than wheat, and capable of 

 growing in wet, cold, and even poor soils, from which it would be 

 impossible to obtain a remunerative crop of the latter — or indeed of 

 any other grain : added to this, it occupies the ground a shorter time, 

 no smaE inducement to those carrying on a confined system of hus- 

 bandry, especially as small proprietors with very limited appliances, so 

 many of which are found among our continental neighbours. Large 

 farms, and the increased capital now employed to work them, associated 

 with the generally higher standard of food consumption that prevails 

 through our own population, as compared with that of France and 

 other countries, are the chief sources of that change under which rye 

 has been, for many years past, nearly excluded as a bread-corn from 

 the English market. 



Though as plants of annual duration only, the value of the cereal 

 grasses is almost universally estimated by the quality of their grain, 

 their herbage is, collectively considered, among the most nutritious of 

 green vegetable productions, and superior to that of most other mem- 

 bers of the group before us. AUusion has already been made above to 

 the use of rye as a green crop ; and the practice of sowing it for that 

 purpose only, which has been extending in England during the last 

 twenty or thirty years, may be regarded now as one established on the 

 basis of experience and remunerative result. Agricultural writers 

 inform us that, sown in the autumn it may be fed off by sheep early in 

 the spring, leaving the ground in a highly improved condition for 

 raising a crop of potatoes or turnips within the year ; or if sown in the 

 latter part of the summer, immediately after the wheat harvest is 

 carried off the ground, or very early in the autumn, the sheep may be 

 turned in upon it in October or November, when other food for them 

 is becoming scarce, without at all injuring the succeeding spring 

 produce. 



The varieties of Secale cereale are apparently numerous, but less 

 striking in character than some of those belonging to the wheat, barley, 

 and oat. One of them is by some botanists regarded as possibly 

 a separate species, the Secale orientale, hairy spiked rye of our cata- 

 logues ; but the distinctions between it and the common rye are pro- 

 bably only dependent upon its cultivation in a warmer climate. It 

 differs somewhat in habit, and is described as being biennial. It is 

 probably the kind known in France as Seigle de Saint Jean, St. John's 

 day rye, which is stated to grow " so rapidly, that if sown about St. John's 

 day (Midsummer's-day), it will be fit to mow green by the middle of 

 September, and in favourable seasons may be fed off again in November, 



