On the St. Johns-Day Rye. 
353 
fully realized. Having reason to think that he had more than he 
could consume in a succulent state, he mowed, on May 27th, an 
acre and twenty rods of it, a very even crop, which, on the scale 
of the rod above mentioned to be weighed, must have yielded him 
about 3 tons 4 cwt. of dry fodder, and which rapidly dried ; 
and, following the example detailed by the Earl of Essex in the 
Society's Journal, Vol. V. p. 6'22, he mixed it in the stack, as an 
absorbent for the juices of an abundant crop which he had of 
hop-clover, or nonesuch (Medicago lupulina), in a half-dried 
stat«, with apparent benefit to both sorts of produce. 
An eminent London seedsman believing that he had obtained 
from the Tyrol a supply of St. John's-day rye, the writer procured 
irom him a sack of it, in order to institute a comparison between 
that and his own. On the 19th day of September, 1845, being 
the earliest day on which he could obtain it, the writer drilled 
side by side on a light chalky soil (the only land he then had 
vacant for it), with pulverized mixed manure, this Tyrolese 
giant rye, some Russian rye, and some St. John's-day rye. The 
Tyrolese rye produced an excellent crop, regard being had to the 
quality of the land, with a large heavy grain, and tall straw, but 
the plant was deficient in tillering out, and consequently did not 
appear identical with the St. John's-day rye, nor its equal for 
the purpose of producing food for cattle. The Russian rye, 
which had rather the worst land of the three, was a fairly good 
crop, but not equal in the height of straw or in the size of the 
grain to the Tyrolese rye; the St. John's-day rye, sown on the 
same 19ih of September, was the shortest in the straw, the 
meanest in the grain, and altogether the most unproductive of 
the three sorts : at the same time, this St. John's-day rye was in 
actual contact with another crop of St. John's-day rye, sown on 
the rith day of July (three weeks later, indeed, than it ought to 
have been), on similar soil. The contrast between the two sow- 
ings was very conspicuous; that which was sown on the 12th of 
July being much thicker on the ground, much stronger in the 
straw, more than a foot higher, and much superior in the quality 
of the grain (for both were preserved for seed), than that which 
was sown 69 days later. 
I will now revert to the experiment made with Cooper's rye, 
as above mentioned. In the months of January and February, 
1846, Cooper's early rye exhibited a dense mass of foliage, and 
a richness of verdure, to which none of the other three varieties, 
sown on the same day, in the same field, were at all comparable. 
Indeed, if it had been then required, it might have been, without 
any imputations of waste, fed off by ewes and lambs in the month 
of February ; and it may be doubted whether it would have been 
more profitable for sheep-feed at any subsequent time. In March 
the radical leaves of this variety had nearly all turned yellow and 
