The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-20
Rye.

Perhaps no other grain possesses more
desirable qualities of usefulness for the
farmer than the sometimes abused rye
While it is not a difficult matter to find
men who would not have a grain of rye
on their farms, it Is capable. If rightly
handled of serving as good a purpose
as any known crop which a farmer can
raise.
Rye should be sown as early after har-
vest as possible. 1t is not particularly
partial to any one kind Of soil, although
light, rather than heavy land, is best for
it. 1t makes good and rapid growth and
can be pastured quite late in the fall, in
fact, until winter sets in. As soon as the
snow is off the ground in spring II can
be again pastured. 1T grows rapidly and
VIII usually keep ahead OF stock unless
too many head per acre are turned into
1t. 1t is an ideal place in which to keep
hogs, of any age, the rye field. Nothing
affords such abundance of pasture in the
eastern and middle states. IL quickly re-
covers after close cropping and requires
but little moisture to keep 1t growing. As
1T heads out considerably earlier than
other grain, 1t may be cut for hay II de-
sired and the land then put in potatoes
beans or corn. Or the pasturing may be
continued while the grain ripens. Hogs
will run in a rye field all summer, re-
quiring no other food and be fat enough
to kill I'm the fall although usually a few
weeks feeding on corn is thought desira-
BILE. have known a drove of twenty
hogs being kept all summer in an orchard
suited to rye. with no other food, and
sold to the butcher without a days ex-
ira feed The rye thus treated self-seeds
and comes up again green ana thick as
a mat in the fall.
BY some. rye is allowed to mature it's
seed and the crop threshed, but the writ
er prefers to cut while green and make
into hay or turn under for manure rather
than to have the rye springing up In other
crops. So the seed is bought from year
to year.
To those who have never tried 1t 1 would
say SOW a field of rye this year Sow 1t
early and do not be afraid to pasture 1t
late. 1t viii come on nicely in the spring,
affording pasturage long before the grass
is big enough to turn into. Keep II fed
down as long as possible, but when II be-
gins to joint keep out the stock II you
want it for hay or to perfect the grain Tor
threShing. In cutting for hay cut before
il begins to turn yellow at the roots so
that it win be green and nice when cured.
If 1t can be used for hogs let them re-
main in it all summer and you will find
it the easiest way of fattening them you
ever tried. Nothing makes spring pigs
grow equal to it, although a little ground
feed may be fed to advantage at any time,
and milk the same.
Yes, as the writer of the foregoing
says, there are some who cannot bear
the thought of sowing rye. Yet there are
many who regard 1t as valuable crop,
and 1t is so. 1t succeeds ottentimeS where
almost nothing else will or does. Where
there are young stock of any kind, cots,
calves, hogs, a few acres, even of rye,
soWn early, goes long ways towards
keeping such stock in healthy growing
state during the winter and spring. We
are a strong believer, though, in mixing
crops for this purpose Did you ever try
an acre or so of rye, oats, barley, wheat,
veltch and bur or crimson clover? II you
have not we wish we could persuade you
to try 1t this fall, in September, or even
as late as October 10.
Another good thing we would like to In
duce you TO try. In early September SOW
on good land broadcast (or it can be done
in drills to advantage five pounds mixed
turnips and twelve pounds crimson clover.
Mix two pounds yellow Aberdeen tur-
nips, two pounds rutabaga and one pound
of cowhorn. Mix them with the clover
seeds and SOW on nicely narrowed soil;
then give a good rolling and the thing is
done, and a good thing, too. Let US be
up and doing.