1877 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
335 
with animal droppings. Grass seed was sowed at 
the same time, but like all the rest of the grass in 
this section, it was burned out and made no sign. 
Something started, it was taken for “barn-grass,” 
or some coarse grass of the kind. The turnips 
yielded well, and the grass, to the surprise of every 
body, did not winter-kill, and was so green in the 
spring, that it was suffered to stand to see what it 
would come to. It proved to be rye. The chaff 
contained light seed which did not decay because 
the season was so hot and dry, so it was sown with 
the manure early in July. It was the earliest, tall¬ 
est, and finest rye cut in our whole neighborhood. 
I conclude not that shriveled seed is the best— 
though possibly some people might argue that, for 
perversity, but that we can hardly sow too early. 
Talks on Farm Crops—No. 7. 
By the Author of “ Walks and Talks on the Farm," 
“Harris on the Pig'' etc. 
“Two years ago,” said the Doctor, “ you sowed 
wheat and rye together. What was the result ? ” 
“The result,” said the Deacon, “was a noble 
crop of rye, with a few heads of wheat scattered 
through it. I see nothing to be gained by it.” 
“ I intend to give it another trial this fall,” said 
I, “the wheat did not hurt the rye. I had appar¬ 
ently just as good a crop of rye as if no wheat had 
been sown. I sowed half a bushel of wheat, and 
one and a half bushels of rye to the acre. This year 
I propose to sow five pecks of each per acre.” 
You ask what I expect to gain by it ? Let me 
say (1) that the land on which I propose to sow the 
wheat and rye, did not produce a good crop of 
wheat the last time it was sown. It winter-killed. 
And this was not the worst of it. The clover-seed 
failed. And you know what this means. It is bad 
enough to lose a crop of wheat and a crop of clover, 
but worse still to have thistles and other weeds get 
full possession of the land. The field, or rather 
part of the field, has not got over it yet, and will 
not until I get it down in clover and grass. (2) The 
land has been underdrained since it was last in 
wheat, and consequently we stand a far better 
chance to get a good crop of wheat; but (3) I do 
not feel at all sure of a good crop of wheat. But 
(4) I feel tolerably certain that rye will do well on 
this land. And (5) there is a good chance for wheat 
to do well. It will depend on the season. And so 
(6) by sowing wheat and rye together, I am pretty 
certain to get a fair crop of rye, even if the winter 
and spring are unfavorable for wheat. While on 
the other hand, if the season should be favorable, I 
should be likely to get a good half-crop of wheat 
and a good half-crop of rye. And (7) a good half¬ 
crop of wheat, and a good half-crop of rye, is bet¬ 
ter than a good crop of rye alone. 
“That is all very well,” said the Deacon, “but 
you did not get five bushels of wheat to the acre.” 
“ True,” said I, “ but we had a good crop of rye. 
The truth is, the season was a very unfavorable one 
for wheat, and, as I said before, we did not sow 
wheat enough. The rye got full possession of the 
soil, and crowded out the wheat. This year I mean 
to sow less rye and more wheat.” 
Sowing wheat and rye together, is not a new idea. 
It has long been practised in Germany, where the 
crop is called Mezlins, and in some parts of Eng¬ 
land, wheat and rye were formerly extensively 
grown together. The crop was called “ Monk-corn.” 
I suppose because the brown-bread made from the 
mixture, was formerly used by the Monks, as it is 
to this day used in many English farm houses. 
'* Yes,” said the Doctor, “ and sweeter and nicer, 
and more wholesome and nutritious bread, when 
properly made, was never eaten.” 
“ I can endorse all that,” said I, “ but of course 
I have no thought of raising this crop with any ex¬ 
pectation of a demand for the mixture. But we 
have now machines that will take out nearly all the 
wheat from the rye. If I could grow a large crop 
of wheat and rye together, I should have no diffi¬ 
culty in getting at least ninety per cent of the 
wheat separated from the iye, and the remaining 
ten per cent being mixed with the rye, would at any 
rate be no injury to the market value of the rye for 
milling purposes. It would be more likely to add 
a few cents a bushel to the price of the rye.” 
Thera would be a little rye in the wheat, but not 
more than is found in average samples of wheat. 
“ But the wheat and rye,” said the Deacon, “ do 
not ripen at the same time.” 
“ True,” said I, “ and that fact probably accounts 
for the opinion that the only way to get good monk- 
corn or mezlin flour, is to grow the wheat and rye 
together. It is claimed that you can not get good 
brown bread merely by mixing wheat and rye flour. 
The wheat and rye must not only be ground to¬ 
gether, but grown together. When grown together, 
the crop would not be cut until the rye was fully 
ripe, while the wheat would be only just out of the 
milk conditions favorable for high quality in both.” 
Rye can be sown earlier or later than wheat. In 
this section it may be sown from the middle of 
August to the middle of October. 
Light sandy, shallow, gravelly soils, that will not 
produce wheat, may yield a good crop of rye. Low, 
black, sandy alluvial soils, where wheat would be 
likely to winter-kill, or where, if it escaped the 
winter, would be likely to rust, or lodge, or be so 
late as to become an easy prey to the midge—on 
such land rye frequently produces a good crop. It 
is on just this character of land where I have seen 
the heaviest crops of monk-corn. If a farmer 
thinks his soil likely to produce good winter wheat, 
he will not sow rye. It is only in doubtful cases 
where rye or rye and wheat will be sown. 
The preparation for rye is usually the same as for 
wheat. A clover-sod or a summer-fallow, is far 
more likely to give a good crop than when rye is 
sown after barley or oats .—“ 1 have seen a good 
crop of rye,” said the Deacon, “raised after pota¬ 
toes.”—“Yes,” said I, “ especially if the potatoes 
had been well manured, or the rye was dressed 
with two hundred lbs. of Peruvian guano, or super¬ 
phosphate, per acre.” 
Mr. Orville Bailey, of Livingston Co., N. Y., once 
told me that he raised 641 bushels of rye per acre. 
It was grown on land that had been in meadow for 
20 years. It was broken up and planted to com. 
The next year it was prepared for tobacco, bat not 
planted. It was sown with rye early in August, and 
was eaten off by sheep during the winter. This is 
the largest crop of which I have any personal 
knowledge—25 bushels per acre is a fair yield. Mr. 
Bailey’s land, though not manured for years, was 
. unquestionably in good condition. It was, prac¬ 
tically, summer-fallowed, was sown early, and, as 
the original intention was to use it merely for 
green fodder, I presume it was seeded heavily. 
As to the amount of seed per acre, the Deacon, 
the Doctor, and other practical and theoretical au¬ 
thorities differ. The Deacon thinks five pecks a- 
bundant, while the Doctor, from observation rather 
than experience, says he would never sow less than 
2 bushels, and if not sown until late, say the last of 
September, he would put on 21 bushels, or if not 
until October, he would sow 3 bushels. When 
straw or green feed is the principal object, he would 
60 w early and sow thick—say the 1st of Septem¬ 
ber, and 21 to 3 bushels per acre. Rye does not 
germinate so soon as wheat, and when sowing them 
together, this fact is a decided advantage. The 
wheat, if the soil is mellow and moist, has a chance 
to get hold of the ground before its coarser and 
hardier associate is strong enough to smother it. 
“ That is so,” said the Doctor, “ and I would ad¬ 
vise you, instead of sowing, as you propose, 11 
bushels of wheat and II bushels of rye, to sow 2 
bushels of wheat and 1 bushel of rye. If your rye 
is too thick, the wheat stands a poor chance.” 
Rye is a capital crop to seed down with. The 
only decent catch of clover I have had of late years, 
has been with rye. I sowed last year on wheat, 
rye, and barley, and the clover on the rye was de¬ 
cidedly the best, wheat next, and barley last. I 
sowed Timothy with the wheat in the fall, and red 
and white clover in the spring. The Timothy did 
quite as well on the wheat as on the rye, but the 
clovers, sown at the same time in the spring, were 
decidedly better on the rye than on the wheat. 
“It need hardly be said,” remarked the Doctor, 
“ that rye affords the best of all straw for bedding 
horses. It often brings a very high price. A far¬ 
mer could well afford to sell rye straw and buy 
clover hay or bran with the money. The exchange 
would give him more food and richer manure. Eng¬ 
lish farmers would raise more rye, did not a clause 
in their leases prevent them from selling straw.” 
“Rye straw,” said I, “ will keep horses cleaner 
than any other bedding, and will last longer than 
wheat, or oat, or barley straw, but I am not sure 
that, for a farmer, it is any better than wheat or 
other straw. It will not absorb any more liquid than 
wheat straw. The horse men like it because it is 
tough and keeps the horse dry and clean. It lets 
the liquid pass through. But this is not what a 
farmer wants, especially in bedding pigs and sheep, 
as we seldom have any arrangement for carrying off 
the liquid. We use straw as an absorbent, and 
wheat, oat, and barley straw, especially when cut 
into chaff, will absorb more liquid than long rye 
straw. From all which I argue that where there is 
a good demand for rye straw, it is well to sell it.” 
“Rye is often grown merely for the straw,” said 
the Doctor, “and is said to be a profitable crop.” 
“It does not exhaust the soil so much,” said the 
Deacon, “ as when it matures. It is the seed that 
contains the nitrogon and phosphoric acid.” 
“ True,” said I, “ but it is hardly safe to take it 
for granted that a crop of corn, when grown for 
fodder, or a crop of rye, when grown for straw, 
does not remove just as much nitrogen and phos¬ 
phoric acid from the soil as when raised for grain. 
The grain exhausts the straw. I think that it will 
be found as necessary to have land rich to produce 
a large crop of corn fodder, or a large crop of rye 
6traw, as to raise a crop of com or a crop of rye.” 
In raising rye for soiling, or for eating off on the 
land by sheep in the spring, it is well to select the 
earliest, warmest, and driest land attainable, and 
get it into prime condition by plowing, harrowing, 
and rolling. The richer it is the better. Then sow 
early and quite thick, say 3 bushels per acre. It 
has never been a favorite crop with me in this sec¬ 
tion. Our springs are too short. It is the earliest 
crop we have, but it does not last long enough. It 
is no sooner ready than it is past its prime. If the 
6heep have plenty of mangels, they can wait until 
the clover is ready for them. If no roots are raised, 
or the crop is short, it would be well to put in an 
acre of rye for each fifty head of sheep. 
If we could do as Mr. Bailey did, sow the rye on 
rich well prepared land, and pasture the crop at 
times, during the winter, and raise, as he did, 641 
bushels per acre, it would be one of the most prof¬ 
itable crops a farmer could raise. The straw is 
generally twice the weight of the grain, and is usu¬ 
ally worth at least $15 per ton. Such a crop would 
net, above all expenses, at least $100 per acre. 
An American Silo. 
The description of a French method of preserv¬ 
ing corn fodder, given in the American Agriculturist 
for June, 1875, has brought out numerous inquiries 
as to the possibility of using the same system here. 
Curiously enough, it is thought by many that the 
method is neither practicable, nor profitable for 
us, although the very same manner of preserving 
an article of feed, not unlike corn fodder in many 
respects, has been in successful use for several 
years by more than one farmer of our acquaintance. 
The feed referred to is brewers’ grains, a substance 
quite as moist, succulent, and easily fermentible as 
corn fodder. If this can be perfectly preserved for 
many months, why could not corn fodder be as well 
preserved in the same manner ? In the American 
Agriculturist of April, 1875, we described a model 
dairy bam, belonging to Mr. Brady, of Katonah, N. 
Y., to which is attached a silo, built upon the same 
principle as those in which the French farmers pre¬ 
serve their corn fodder. The only difference being, 
that the French silos are long and narrow, while 
Mr. Brady’s is more nearly square. The long and 
narrow silo is undoubtedly the better of the two, 
but the difference in shape does not influence the 
