Smyrna times., 1903-10-21
GROW RYE.
IN Ohio Mans Plan For Easy and
PrOiitnbIe Farming.

Profitable Farming.
Rye is a crop that can be grown and
harvested by live stock with very lit
tie if any loss. 1t is the only small |
grain crop with which we are familiar |
that can so successfully be handled in |
this way, says an Ohio Farmer writer. |
The crop can be best utilized by the |
use of sheep and hogs. No man can |
have very definite idea of how much |
there is in the crop till he makes it |
a study and puts forth a strong effort
to sow it everywhere he can on his |
farm. On our farm of eighty-six acres,
with seasonable rains, there will be
rye growing in October on forty-hVe
acres, more than One-half of the farm,
that will furnish pasture for great
amount Of stock and can best be saved
by pasturing hogs, breeding ewes and
lambs being fatted for market.
For twenty years the land has been
kept regularly in rotation, wheat, clo-
yer and corn, the hay and corn being
fed out on the farm and the manure,
with much hauled from town, put ON
the land Under this treatment the
land has grown gradually better. There
is a vast amount of labor connected
with this system that we are forced
by circumstances beyond our control
to abandon as far as possible. Rye
crops without harvesting and thrash
ing will be the principal feature in
bringing this about. Farmers often
will not grow it as we do and hog it
down" for fear of the voluntary crop
spelling the clover crop following.
As to this, volunteer crop of rye
which we had in clover would have
been an advantage had we wanted to
make hay of the crop. The rye pre-
vented the clover lodging, as it would
surely have done without it. Cut for
hay, the rye in it would not have been
any detriment, but an advantage if fed
out ON the faHn as it always is here.
If stacked in the field there was
enough rye in it if the stacks were
carefully raked down to shed the rain.
Using rye instead of wheat and not
harvesting it brings us up against the
! fact that we are without bedding for
the stock. For a time no doubt this
need can be met by purchasing straw,
as many farmers within an area Of
two or three miles sell their straw to
men buying it for factory purposes.
There is no small grain crop grown
that is better to start clover in than
rye, and this advantage is much en-
hanced when the crop is not cut, but
allowed to fall on the land and be
gathered by the stock on the farm.
For late fall, winter and spring pas
turing sheep will be found the most
desirable animals to use, as they will
not injure the land by tramping when
wet as other animals will. Carrying
the plan through the year, the only
element barring success is lack of
moisture.
This plan will prove practicable and
profitable on thousands of farms
where wheat has been grown for years
past and is still being grown, never
paying expenses, the land constantly
growing poorer, while the use of rye
will continually add to the fertility Ot
the soil and pay a profit as it goe:
along. 1t will not come in a lump a;
when a grain crop is sold, but it will
be coming in all the time.
TaIe at the Head.
AS the new president of the Ameri
can Pomological society J. II. Hale
seems likely to prove the right man il
the right place, says American Cultiva
tor He has put new life into the sew
eral prominent Connecticut societies
with which he has been connected
His organizing and executive power:
unite with his contagious enthusiasm
in making him the right kind of {
leader to increase the power and use
fulness Of this important society.