probably confined to the elevated and inclement 
regions, where the chilling blasts descending from 
the Alps rendered the culture of superior grain 
precarious and unprofitable.” 
Rye was known and cultivated in Britain at a 
very early period. Spelman’s Glossary speaks of 
ancient rents reserved in rye, showing it to have 
been anciently in extensive cultivation ; and 
Worlidge and Ray, who wrote in the 17th cen- 
tury, enumerate it among the plants then com- 
monly cultivated in Britain,—and the former 
assigns it a rank as a bread-stuff next to wheat. 
A practice long prevailed, both in Britain and in 
other lands, of sowing rye and wheat together ; 
and the name given to this mixture was meslin 
or maslin,—a Norman word signifying corn, and 
seeming therefore to indicate a considerably high 
antiquity in this practice, and a corresponding 
antiquity and prevalence of the ordinary culti- 
vation of rye. But the reputation of this grain 
as a bread-stuff, in Britain, gradually diminished 
during the progress of modern agricultural im- 
provement, and may now be regarded as extinct. 
Yet rye is still extensively cultivated as a bread- 
corn throughout Poland, Russia, Switzerland, 
much of Germany, and other parts of Continental 
Europe ; it is cultivated, both as a bread-corn 
and for other purposes, in some of these Huropean 
countries, in some parts of America, and in other 
parts of the world; and it has of late years begun 
to challenge high attention as a forage-plant, as 
well as to maintain an old character for some 
important though comparatively small economi- 
cal uses, in various districts of Britain. Its 
present rank among field-plants, therefore, may 
be regarded as one of permanent and reviving 
interest. 
The Different Kinds of Rye—The corn rye, 
Secale cereale, is the principal species, and com- 
prises a number of varieties. It is an annual, 
and has ordinarily a height of about 3 fect, and 
naturally blooms in June and July. 
Winter rye, S. ¢. hybernum, is the kind most 
generally cultivated in Britain; and is supposed 
to have been originally introduced from Tauria, 
while the normal corn rye was introduced from 
the Crimea. It is particularly adapted for poor 
moorish soils in upland situations, and, in gene- 
ral, for all sorts of inferior arable soils which are 
incapable of producing wheat. It serves, more 
or less, all the several purposes for which rye of 
any kind is wanted ; and in some parts of Scot- 
land, particularly in Orkney and in Argyleshire, 
it is grown exclusively for the manufacture of 
straw-plait. It is sown in autumn, and stands 
over winter, in the same manner as winter 
wheat ; and therefore has a kind of biennial 
character. 
Spring rye, S. c. vernum, grows more uprightly 
from the commencement than the winter rye, 
does not tiller so well, and is about 12 days ear- 
lier. Its culm, also, is more slender and a good 
deal shorter ; its ear is shorter; and its grain is 
rather smaller, but heavy and of excellent quali- 
ty. Yet notwithstanding its several and wide 
differences, it maintains them only when treated 
strictly as a spring corn; for when frequently 
sown under similar circumstances to those of 
winter rye, it becomes identical with that variety 
in both habit and appearance. Spring rye seems 
to have been known in Britain at least 70 years 
ago, yet has never come into extensive cultivation 
in this country. It was regarded by M. Vilmorin, 
in the intensely dry summer of 1818, as the best 
of the cereal grasses then known in France for 
growing rapidly and affording the earliest and 
readiest supply of green food to starving cattle 
in a year when all verdure was burnt up,—and 
it probably is surpassed in this important adapta- 
tion by no agricultural plant known at the pre- 
sent hour, except perhaps the Sefarza germanica 
or moha or German millet; and it has, for some 
little time past, been getting into greatly ex- 
tended cultivation, as a bread-corn, in some parts 
of France, and is there sown in March. A sub- 
variety of it, grown in Germany, and called the 
great spring rye, is taller, and has longer ears, 
and is a little later, than the kind usually cul- 
tivated in France. 
The Roman rye seems to be intermediate in 
character between the winter rye and the spring 
rye. ‘We owe this interesting variety,” says 
the intelligent author of Le Bon Jardinier for 
1846, “to the Marquis Doncieu de Chaffardon, 
whose son brought it, some years ago, from the 
environs of Rome. It is distinguished from other 
varieties readily by the lightness of its colour, 
and eminently by the great size of its grain. In 
autumnal sowings of it in France, it has com- 
pletely borne the winter, and has remained a 
comparatively fuller plant than other winter rye 
grown by its side; and in spring sowings, it has 
freely matured itself to seed, and for the most 
part in good season.” But it cannot yet be said 
to have acquired a steady character even in 
France; and as to Britain, it is but newly intro- 
duced, and has not yet been duly tested with the 
climate. 
The midsummer rye or St. John’s day rye is 
the most valuable of all the known and tested 
varieties of rye to the British farmer. It was 
introduced to France from Tuscany by M. Vil- 
morin, and from France to Britain by Dr. J. 8. 
Duncan and W. P. Taunton, Esq.; and, for some 
time past, it has been rapidly rising in favour 
and greatly extending in cultivation. It differs 
very much from both the winter rye and the 
spring rye; it is considerably later in running 
to ear and in ripening than the winter rye; and 
it produces longer straw, much longer ears, and 
more root foliage. In France and other parts of 
the Continent, it is often sown in the end of 
June, and eaten down with sheep in autumn and 
spring till the latter part of April, and then 
allowed to run to seed; and it has the reputation 
of yielding a larger produce in grain when thus 
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