St. Johns-day Rye. 
179 
produce double the quantity of herbage on the same space of 
ground. Indeed in one field where the two varieties were grow- 
ing together, the common rye, after twice feeding off, became 
so thin that I ploughed it up ; while this new rye covers the 
ground with its third crop as with its first. Besides tillering 
more, it is also sweeter than the common rye when young. 
Where they grow together, the hares and rabbits, while we tad 
any, ate it before the other. Its principal merit, however, is its 
superior sweetness in advanced growth, and the consequently 
longer time during which it remains fit for use as spring feed. 
Good farmers who have seen it agree with me, that this new rye 
should be tried upon such light hollow soils as we sometimes find 
on our southern chalk-hills. On such land, in dry seasons, farmers 
often lose their turnip crop after it is singled out ; but rye is 
known to bear well such looseness of soil. If it were sown in- 
stead of turnips, or where the turnips had missed, on a part of the 
turnip-land, even one green crop in the autumn, to say nothing 
of two, and another in spring, might compensate for such a crop 
of roots as this land generally yields. If it stood for seed after- 
wards, it would then also take the place of the barley crop, the 
turnip's natural successor ; and the rotation would remain undis- 
turbed. I will only add one suggestion, or rather call attention 
to a statement of Mr. Taunton's, that if the St. John's-day rye be 
left uneaten in the autumn, it will aflFord feed for ewes and lambs 
equal to the best water-meadow, as early as the beginning of 
March or the end of February, an invaluable time for such feed. 
All that is hoped of a new plant is seldom realised in practice ; 
but what I have myself seen of tlie St. John's-day rye, and the 
opinions of farmers who have also watched it, make me sure that 
I should not be rash in advising occupiers of light lands to give it 
a trial, but that unfortunate!)', as I am informed, no seed is now 
to be procured abroad with a certainty of its genuineness. 
Pusey, May 12, 1845. 
XVI. — On a variety of Rye as Green Fodder. By Robert 
Baker. 
To Ph. Pusey, Esq., M.P. 
Sir, — I read with much attention the communication made by 
you to the Committee of the Royal Agricultural Society " upon 
the growth of St. John's-day rye," and as I have cultivated rye 
for feeding purposes for several years with great advantage, I 
have much pleasure in communicating the results. 
N 2 
