258 



RYE. 



In the United States the growth of the oat is confined principally 

 to the Middle, Western and Xorthern States. The varieties 

 cultivated are the common white, the black, the grey, the imperial, 

 the Hopetown, the Polish, the Egyptian, and the potato oat. The 

 yield of the common varieties varies from forty to ninety bushels 

 and upwards per acre, and weighing from twenty-five to fifty 

 pounds to the bushel. The Egyptian oat is cultivated south of 

 Tennessee, which after being sown in autumn, and fed ofi" by 

 stock in vsdnter and spring, yields from ten to twenty bushels per 

 acre. In tlie manufacture of malt and spii-ituous liquors oats 

 enter but lightl}-, and then' consumption for this pm-pose does not 

 exceed 60,000 bushels annually in the United States. 



In 1840, Ireland exported 2,087,885 quarters of oats and 

 oatmeal, but in 1846, on account of the dearth, the grain exports 

 fell ofi" completely. Most of the grain grown in Ireland requires 

 to be kiln-dried, and is, therefore, of loT\er value. 



The oat, like rye, never has entered much into our foreign 

 commerce, as the domestic consumption has always been nearly 

 equal to the quantity produced. The annual average exports from 

 the United States for several years preceding 1817, were 70,000 

 bushels. 



By the census retiums of 1840, the total produce of the United 

 States was l'^8,07l,311 bushels ; of 1850, 116,678,879 bushels. 



In Prussia 48 million hectolitres of oats are annually raised. 



The quantity of oats imported into the United Kingdom, has 

 been declining within the last few vears. In 1849, we imported 

 1,267,106 quarters : in 1850, 1,154,473- in 1851, 1,209,844 ; in 

 1852, 995,479. In 1844, 221,105 bushels of oats were raised in 

 Van Diemen's Land on 13,864 acres. 



EYE. 



Eye (Secale cereale) is scarcely at all raised in this country for 

 bread, except in Durham and Northumberland, where, liowever, it 

 is usually mixed with wheat, and forms what is called "maslin," 

 — a bread corn in considerable use in the north of Europe. 



G-eographically rye and barley associate with one another, and 

 grow upon soils the most analogous, and in situations alike exposed. 

 It is cultivated for bread in Northern Asia, and all over the Con- 

 tinent of Europe, particularly in Eussia, Norway, Denmark, 

 Sweden, Germany and Holland ; in the latter of which it is much 

 employed in the manufacture of gin. It is also gro^vn to some 

 extent m England, Scotland and Wales. AYith us it is little used 

 as an article of food compared with wheat and oats, though in 

 the north of Europe and in Elanders it forms the principal article 

 of human subsistence, but generally mixed with wheat, and 

 sometimes, also with barley ; 100 parts of the grain consist of 

 65-6 of meal, 24-2 of husk,* and 10'2 of water. ' The quantity of 

 rye we import seldom reaches 100,000 quarters per annum. 



