On the St. John s-Day Rye. 
335 
into Thrace in the stream of Gallic migration, having first moved 
from east to west in more northerly latitudes, and being of a 
cognate race, perhaps, to the renowned Asae of Scandinavian 
mythology, we shall see a strong reason, in the singular name of 
Asia, given to this grain, to believe that it must have been borne 
from Asiatic Tartary by the restless rolling hordes of that great 
northern hive, through the northern, into the more southern parts 
of Europe. 
Rye appears to have been in Pliny's time, as now, cultivated 
not alone for its grain, but also as fodder for cattle ; for after 
saying, in book 18, chap, xxxix. p. 119, that rye and farrago 
(which he afterwards explains to be a thick sowing of tading 
wheat mixed with vetches) required no other cultivation than a 
harrowing, indicating thereby that rye is best suited, as the fact is, 
to a Jight sandy soil, since a strong soil cannot be cultivated by a 
mere harrowing; and that in Africa, barley (which Pere Harduin 
expounds to mean winter barle}) is used for the same purpose, 
being sown together with a degenerate vetch, which Pliny calls 
Cracca, he adds, that all the articles which he has enumerated are 
destined for cattle food. Pliny further says that rye is the worst 
of grain, and only fit to repel famine ; that it is productive, but is 
of a slender straw ; that it is miserable for its blackness, but re- 
markable for its weight : that wheat is sometimes mixed with it 
to mitigate its bitterness ; but that even so it is most unacceptable 
to the stomach : that it grows in dry soil, and makes a return of 
a hundred grains for one, and itself suffices for manure ; thereby 
probably meaning, that, as it is a good forager, it will grow without 
dung. When we recollect that the means were familiar to Pliny 
of comparing rye with the splendid wheats of Italy,* we may not, 
perhaps, much wonder at his low appreciation of this homely 
though nutritive and useful grain. Its use at that time as a 
breadstuff was probably confined to the elevated and inclement 
regions, where the chilling blasts descending from the Alps 
rendered the culture of superior grain precarious and unprofit- 
able. The author is not aware that the English farmer will 
agree with Pliny in considering that a rye crop positively im- 
proves the fertility of the soil whereon it grows, unless the pro- 
position be confined to such crops of rye as are fed off by sheep 
in a green state, which may profitably be done in preparation for 
turnips. 
I entertain doubts whether the rye mentioned in our version of 
the Old Testament was the plant which we now know by that 
* Pliny says, "There are many sorts of wheat, which different nations 
have created. [So that the crossing and obtaining varieties is not so novel 
an art as some may think.] But 1 can compare none to the Italian wheat 
in whiteness and weight, by which it is particularly distinguished." — 
Plin., book 18, s. 12, 1. 1, p. 106. 
