Oh the St. John s- Day R;je. 
345 
jacent fields. The same doubtless occurs in other parts of Eng- 
land. The swede, if not carted off and stored, occupies the land 
for very nearly a twelvemonth ; yet who will deny that wheat and 
swedes are worth cultivation? In the course of this paper some 
striking examples will be given of the difference between the pro- 
duce of an early sown and a late sown crop of St. John's-day rye. 
The mode of operation by which the St. John's-day rye be- 
comes so productive, is its tendency to throw out extremely nu- 
merous branches fi om the same root ; or, as it is expressed by 
farmers, to tiller out greatly ; from which quality it has obtained 
its name of multicaule, or many-stalked rye. These branches 
are not all produced at the same time, but successively ; and the 
season for their production is limited to the period during which 
the plant is not excited to throw up its culms ; for after the culms 
have begun to rise, there is little or no addition made to their 
number. It is important, therefore, to the increase of the bulk of 
the crop, that the period between the germination of the seed and 
the rising of the culms should be protracted as long as possible. 
The longer it is, the more numerous will be the branches from a 
single root. This, therefore, is the cause of the marked advantage 
attendant upon sowing at midsummer. In consequence of this 
habit of tillering, a very small quantity of seed suffices, if it be 
early sown, I think that a bushel is sufficient to produce the 
maximum of grain upon an acre, if sown on good land at mid- 
summer : the quantity of green-meat will probably be augmented 
by sowing a somewhat larger allowance of seed, especially if the 
land beat all subject to the wireworm, which feeds greedily on 
this rye, and which I have found to destroy an entire crop when 
the ground has been left hollow. Indeed, I consider abundant 
compression of the new-sown soil by Crosskill's clod-crusher, or, 
in its absence, by other heavy rollers, and by the treading of 
sheep, to be most efficacious, if not essential, to the success of 
this crop. 
The author cannot agree with the statement of the writer 
quoted by Mr. Rham, that the St. John's-day rye is a fast- 
growing j)lant. On the contrary, he conceives, and has proved 
by experiment, that it is a slow-growing plant, and that herein 
lies one of its principal merits. A fast-growing plant would not 
retain its culms in a state sufficiently tender to be eatable for a 
period extending from thirty to fifty days. He has always been 
most successful with this crop in proportion as lie has more nearly 
adhfered to the precept of sowing it at midsummer. It occupies the 
ground for nearly a year therefore ; for, as to the proposition of 
harvesting it in May or June, the author certainly never found any 
crop of this variety ripe and fit to cut for seed bel'ore the beginning 
of J uly, and in some years not so early. Messrs. Lawson (p. 32) 
