On the St. Joliii^s-Day Ri/c. 
355 
this variety ought to be proscribed, and never more cultivated by 
any good I'armer. 
Mr. Cooper has informed me that he currently has his early 
rye in a state sufficiently forward to begin soiling by the middle 
of April ; as it appears, by the foregoing details, mine would have 
been in April, 1846, if I had possessed a sufficient supply. 
It is needless for me to expatiate on the great advantage arising 
to the farmer in the increase of dung, from having green-meat 
ready to put before his horses and beasts in the stable and stall 
from the middle of April to November, and upon the much 
greater economy of supporting his slock on green-meat than on 
dry food. And although the St. John's-day rye might be cut as 
early as that, if sown at Midsummer, having, as we have seen, 
been 22 inches high on the i7th of April ; yet when an additional 
three weeks or month of growth will double or even treble the 
bulk on the ground, it appears a waste, and almost a desecration, of 
the good gilts that are bestowed on us, to cut it in that embryo 
state. I also think it right to mention, as an advantage incident 
to the sowing at Midsummer of St. John's-day rye, or any other 
cereal, for green-meat to be eaten in stable or stall, that I find it 
an excellent opportunity for sowing with the rye either sainfoin 
or permanent meadow grasses. During winter the long over- 
hanging blades protect the young grass plants from being drawn 
out of the ground by the frost, which I have found to be by that 
operation greatly destructive of aut jmnal-sown grasses, particu- 
larly in calcareous soils, and also in peat, and doubtless it would 
be so also for clover. The Midsummer season enables the farmer 
completely to cleanse the soil from all root-weeds, and also to 
pulverize it well ; and there is no season at which either sainfoin 
or permanent grasses vegetate better, or can be more accurately 
rolled or sheep-trodden. I do not extend this proposition to rye 
fed off by sheep, never having sown grasses with any rye destined 
to be so applied, and being apprehensive that the sheep might tear 
the young grass-plants out of the ground, more especially as their 
roots would probably have been loosened by the winter's frost; 
and it might be necessary to depasture the rye before the grasses 
would have regained a firm anchorage in the soil. 
The facts I have above stated strongly illustrate the exjiediency 
of early sowing for the St. John s-day rye. My croj) of it sown 
the 21st of June proved very thick and nearly 7 feet high. My 
crop sown on the Pith of July was considerably inferior. Mv 
crop sown on the 3rd of September barely kept even pace, in 
bulk, with its Russian neighbour. My crop sown the 19th of 
September was decidedly inferior to its Tyrolese and Russian 
neighbours. It is therefore injustice to a plant, which in its 
proper season and place may be highly useful, to sow it out of 
