32 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



loaf may be hereditary in those of us who come of 

 New England ancestry, for the brown bread that 

 accompanied the baked beans was "half rye and 

 half Indian meal." That loaf was and is deserv- 

 edly popular. 



Rye is a grain used extensively in the making 

 of whiskey. It is more for this purpose than for 

 any other that the crop is raised in the United 

 States. Poor land is often sowed to rye for its 

 improvement; the green crop is turned under or 

 pastured, the roots left to form humus. 



Rye straw is wiry and long, on good land, and 

 though too fibrous to make good forage for cattle 

 when ripe it is the best for making paper and paste- 

 board, for straw hats, and bedding stables for 

 horses. The longest straw is used by gardeners 

 to wrap tender trees and shrubs that must stay 

 outdoors all winter. It is used as packing ma- 

 terial by manufacturers of all kinds of fragile 

 wares. The straw often pays better than the 

 grain. 



Rye is known in very few varieties, and is 

 probably not one of the oldest cultivated grains. 

 Its parent form, botanists say, grew on the moun- 

 tainous, dry regions from southern Europe east- 

 ward to Central Asia. 



The "head" of a stalk of rye is like that of 



