RYE. 
treated than if it were grown in the usual way. 
The great length of time which it occupies be- 
tween brairding and running to seed peculiarly 
qualifies it for this kind of treatment; and a 
habit which it has of powerfully tillering or of 
throwing up many stalks eminently fits it for 
being grown for soiling at so advanced a period 
in the season as the third or fourth week of June. 
On suitable soil, and when sown between the 
Qist and the 30th of June, and pressed down on 
light land by rolling or sheep-treading, it soon 
throws out a great mass of foliage, and eventually 
rises to the height of 6 or 7 feet, and may yield 
so much as 11 London loads of straw per acre 
when left for seed. “The mode of operation by 
which the St. John’s day rye becomes so produc- 
tive,’ says Mr. Taunton, “is its tendency to 
throw out extremely numerous branches from 
the same root; or, as it is expressed by farmers, 
to tiller out greatly ; from which quality it has 
obtained its name of mulivcaule, 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 totheir number. It 
is important, therefore, to the increase of the bulk 
of the crop, that the period between the germina- 
tion 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 mid- 
summer.” If the young crop be mowed or fed 
down once or twice before winter, it will grow 
vigorously again,—and a strong temptation to 
this treatment is held out by the luxuriant mass 
of herbage which it presents by about the month 
of October; but in all ordinary cases, it will 
compensate far better if left alone till spring. 
“The root-leaves,” says the writer we have just 
been quoting, “neither die away in the same de- 
gree as those of the barley, nor are materially 
injured by the frost ; and so soon as the influence 
of the vernal sun returns to the earth, the young 
leaves, under the shelter of these old leaves, 
shoot up among them, and attain nearly the 
same height as their nurses, regardless of the 
north-easterly winds; and the mixture of the 
old and young leaves furnishes not only a more 
bulky, but a heartier and safer meal for a sheep 
than the tender young shoots alone would do, for 
the earliest shoots of almost every sort of herbage 
often have too aperient a quality ; while, if there 
had been no old leaves remaining, but if these 
new leaves had to rise into the cold air from the 
naked ground, they would not at that time ven- 
ture to put out a shoot. This crop realizes, in 
an eminent degree, the benefits contemplated by 
the late Arthur Young, in strongly recommend- 
ing the farmer to preserve the old fog, or after- 
grass, of pasture fields, untouched through the 
105 
winter, for the food of ewes and lambs in spring. 
You not only have the foliage you had in No- 
vember, at a time when its specific value is 
doubled or trebled, but you have its bulk doubled 
also. There may, indeed, be cases, when an early 
sowing, combined with very rich or highly ma- 
nured ground, or a soil fully stocked with char- 
lock, may produce such a mass of autumnal foli- 
age that it would in a long winter rot on the 
ground. In such a case it might be necessary to 
mow or feed it before winter; but that is an ex- 
treme case.” 
Cooper’s early broad-leaved rye was brought 
into use about 3 or 4 years ago by Mr. Thomas 
Cooper of Ardleigh Wick, near Colchester, in 
Hssex ; and is an extremely valuable variety, of 
similar properties to the St. John’s day rye, bus 
considerably earlier. When sown in the begin- 
ning of September, it exhibits a surpassingly 
dense herbage and rich verdure in January and 
February, and becomes fit for soiling about the 
middle of April, and attains as great a height in 
the beginning of May as St. John’s day rye sown 
at midsummer, but is liable to prove wofully de- 
ficient in grain at the time of harvest. Mr. Baker 
of Writtle in Essex, speaking apparently of this 
rye, says, “I know of no other food for early 
spring use, as a substitute for hay, equal to this.” 
And Mr. Taunton says, “I strongly recommend 
to every farmer in the southern counties, who 
studies the increase of manure, and frugality in 
his stable and stall expenditure, to sow every 
year a certain breadth of Cooper’s early rye, sufli- 
cient to last him from the middle of April to the 
second week in May or middle of that month ; 
and a somewhat larger breadth of the St. John’s 
day rye, to succeed the former, being sufficient 
to last him to the third or fourth week in June. 
With the aid of these two, he can well keep his 
stock tied up until the racer vetches, winter bar- 
ley, common winter vetches, and clovers come in, 
and place him at his ease, with a latitude of 
choice of green fodder.” 
The many-stalked Russian rye, though sharing 
the name many-stalked with the St. John’s day | 
rye, bears a nearer resemblance to the common rye 
of the French than to that variety. Its leaf is 
broader and straighter and of a more tender 
green colour than the St. John’s day rye; its 
time of coming to maturity is somewhat less 
late ; and its grain is larger, more abundant, and 
of better quality. It does not tiller out more 
than the common French rye; it is longer eat- 
able as green food for cattle than the English 
rye; and, though by no means equal to the St. 
John’s day rye for fodder, it must be regarded as 
a very large, beautiful, and productive variety. 
The Tyrolese giant rye was introduced a few 
years ago from the Tyrol, and has a general re- 
semblance to the St. John’s day rye; but tillers 
much less, and is considerably earlier, and does 
not afford so good a supply of green food for 
eattle. It has tall straw, and large heavy grain. 
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