562 



RYE 



RYE 



acceptable method of baling rye-straw. The bales 

 weigh 200 to 250 pounds each. A hay car will 

 hold about ten tons of baled straw. 



Long, clean, bright straw will usually sell at 

 prices approximating that of good timothy, hay. 

 The straw must be bright if it is to bring a good 



price. Straw grown on hilltops 

 is generally very much brighter 

 (sometimes almost white) than that 

 grown in the alluvial valleys below. 

 Straw grown on black soils in seasons 

 of abundant rainfall is often very much 

 discolored and of low value. The straw 

 will also be brighter in color and will 

 weigh better if cut a few days before 

 complete maturity. Heavy rains after it 

 has once dried seem to diminish its weight 

 by washing out soluble matter. 



A ton of rye-straw per acre is accounted a 

 good yield, and the usual thresherman's esti- 

 mate is sixteen to twenty bushels of grain 

 to each ton of baled straw. The writer in 

 1905 grew on one measured acre 3,305 pounds 

 of baled straw and twenty-seven bushels and 

 twenty -two pounds of grain, exclusive of scat- 

 terings which would probably have made the 

 straw about thirty-five hundred pounds and 

 the grain twenty-nine bushels. This, so far 

 as straw is concerned, seemed to be about all 

 that could possibly grow on an acre. It was 

 on soil rich enough so that in the same field 

 the wheat in spots was badly lodged. While 

 on good land and under favorable conditions 

 the yield of rye is generally less than that of 

 wheat, and while thirty bushels of rye is a 

 very exceptional yield, yet the average pro- 

 duction per acre as reported by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture is larger in the case of 

 rye. On the other hand, wheat can be made to -pro- 

 duce more to the acre than can rye. For the five 

 years 1900-1904, the average yield of rye per acre 

 was 15.6 bushels, against 13.5 bushels for wheat. 

 This is explained by the fact that most of the rye 

 is grown in the older states where culture and soil 

 preparation are more thorough, while the average 

 yield of wheat is reduced by the great acreage 

 in states where less careful methods of soil prepa- 

 ration and fertilization result in a low average per 

 acre. The average yield of rye in the South 

 Atlantic states is reported as only a little more 

 than seven bushels per acre. 



Marlceting. 



Only one class of rye is recognized in the grain 

 trade, and this grades as Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, varying 



from that which is bright, dry and well cleaned 

 down to that which is damp, musty or in bad con- 

 dition from any cause. The legal weight of a 

 bushel of rye is fifty-six pounds in nearly all the 

 states. 

 For the five years 1900-1904, the average price 

 of export rye at New York was 56 

 cents and for wheat 69.2 cents. 

 While the exports of rye are very 

 small as compared with other grains, 

 yet during the five years 1900 to 

 1904, inclusive, about 25 per cent 

 of the total crop was exported. 



Uses. 



Grain for feed. — Rye constitutes 

 the main bread grain of more than 

 one-third of the inhabitants of 

 Europe, but in America it is used 

 mainly as a food for animals. The 

 fact that it carries comparatively 

 little protein does not as a rule 

 commend it for feeding dairy cows. 

 Apart from its composition it has, 

 for some reason, a distinctly bad 

 reputation among dairymen, it being averred that 

 it causes cows to "dry up," although there does 

 not seem to be any real scientific basis for this 

 idea. 



In the districts where rye is grown, it is often 

 ground and mixed with wheat bran or oats as a 

 feed for horses doing heavy, slow work, and they 

 keep in excellent condition on it. However, owing 

 to the heavy, sticky, viscid mass that ground rye 

 forms when moistened, it should always be fed 

 mixed with some bulky material to lighten it. 

 Used as a food for hogs, especially in connection 

 with dairy by-products, it is always regarded as 

 very satisfactory. Poultry, however, will refuse 

 rye as long as any other grain is available. 



Pasturing of rye. — The writer has learned from 

 many years of experience in the fall-grazing of 

 rye that it will force a yield of milk beyond any 

 other food, young wheat only excepted. A herd 

 may be well fed in the fall and be giving good 

 returns, but if turned out on a luxuriant growth 

 of rye for a few days the increase in milk will be 

 astonishing. While such fall-pasturing of rye is an 

 incidental and perhaps not very usual practice, yet 

 there are years when the food thus secured will 

 add very considerably to the total net income 

 secured from the crop. If stock is kept off in 

 very wet times when the ground would poach, and 

 is not allowed to graze it too closely, such pastur- 

 ing does not appear greatly to reduce the crop. 

 Sometimes in warm, moist falls when the plants 

 have made excessive growth, pasturing may actu- 

 ally be beneficial. Spring pasturing is frequent. 



Soiling. — Rye has often been employed aa a 

 soiling crop for feeding in the green state, and 

 occasionally it has been cured into hay. Its advan- 

 tage lies in the fact that it will furnish a con- 

 siderable amount of green food earlier in the 

 spring than any other forage plant and before the 

 pasture grasses are available. 



