EYE. 



409 



and rye whiskey is famous as a beverage 

 the world over. The famous "Hollands" 

 (gin) is made from rye, flavored with juniper 

 berries. 



Sown early in the fall, and even in August, 

 it affords a fine nutritious pasturage through 

 the next seven or eight months, or, until it 

 begins to "spindle" up, when it becomes 

 woody, loses its succulent character, and is 

 not relished by stock. In some countries it is 

 sown with wheat, and ground into a meal that 

 is particularly fine and nourishing, and is 

 called meslin. It is famous as a healthy bread, 

 suitable for the sick. Rye meal makes break- 

 fast cakes, equal to the best buckwheat, and 

 not easily detected from it. It is used quite 

 extensively among the poorer classes for 

 making coffee, and by dealers as an adul- 

 terant for ground coffee. 

 During rainy wet seasons, a fungous growth makes its 

 appearance in the grains, causing them to be elongated and 

 twisted, forming "Spurred rye" or Ergot. Men or animals 

 partaking of this diseased grain become poisoned, and the 

 most fatal symptoms ensue, the extremities becoming gan- 

 grenous and, if continued in, will finally result in death. 

 Still this ergot is one of our most precious medicines and 

 would be badly missed. 



The yield of rye is seldom more than fifteen or twenty 

 bushels to the acre, though, like all cereals, it is greatly 

 benefited by manure. The best manure is bone dust or 

 phosphate of lime, the phosphates entering largely into its 

 composition. The quantity to be sown to the acre is a 

 bushel or a bushel and a half, either for seed or pasturage. 

 It is sown, as other cereals, on well prepared land, though 

 if only wanted for pasture, it is a good plan to sow it 

 broadcast over corn land just before the corn is laid by, and 



