ON THE CULTURE OF RYE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 2, Issue 32, 14 March 1850, Page 2

ON THE CULTURE OF RYE.

Pursuing our agricultural inquiries, we next come to consider whether the culture of rye would be suited to the climate of New Zealand, and, if so, whether its growth would be profitable to the farmer. Rye fins been cultivated from the earliest times iu every country. Unlike other grain, it boasts but of two varieties. Spring and Winter rye, and these so closely assimilate in their uhuineli-r aad appearance as scarcely to merit any ma;ked distinction. Jtyc is now but very moderately cultivated in Great !lri;aii.>, where it has almost entirely ce.isid to be used us bread corn. Not so, however, in many parts of the continent of I'iurope. In Russia, Germany, and Flanders, rye still continues to be extensively grown, und to fo.ui the staple and favourite bread of the population of those countries. It is said to be wholesome nud jiutritinus—nearly as much so ns wheaten bicad. In Germany, we li.ivc ourselves frequently partaken of this bread ; it is very dark in the colour, acid in the taste, and, to our thinking, extremely toarsu and unpalntable food. Rye tiny be grown with advantage upon soils quite unfitted for the cultivation of t. heat, it is a rigorous, hardy plant, littl ■ liable to tiny of the diseases to which othei' grains are subject, It flourishes so, comparatively, well upon poor and hungry soils, that it has not been unusual to designate such tracts, rye lands. The manner of cuftiviving ryo is precisely similar to tlmt of wheat. It may be sown either in spring or autumn—broad-cast or in diills—the quantity of seed being from two bushels and a half to three bushels an acre. As has juat been stated, rye will ) iuld a fair crop in land where whjut would fail but, if ry<i lis sown in a rich and fertile soil, its return will be of more than commensurate liu'l:. liy the returns for the first week of the year 1841, the relative value in the London markets of the following grains stood thus Wheat, 7s. Sd.,—Liarley, 4s. Ud„ —ami Rye, 'ls, per bushel; and the quantity of wheat sold amounted to 551,9-'0 bushels, whilst of rye there were but 2001 bushels. In Flanders, rye is extensively cultivated for the purposes of distillation. It is the principal grain from which the spirit known to commerce as gin or geneva is manufactured. It is said to malt well, und to make excellent beer, —and one bushel of rye malt is accounted to be fully tqual.lo a bushel and a qu;i l <t of barley malt. Rye is frequently cultivated as a green crop> —but, of its utility us such, very conflicting opinion., provail. On this point, Mr. Loudon, an authority of no little reputation in agricultural mutters, thus unqualifiedly pronounces, that it is grown " with n view of affording some keep for sheep early in the spring, and also for being ploughed in as manure; but that husbandry must be bad or unfortunate which requires recourse to either mode.'' This is certainly a very sweeping condemnation of rye as a green crop ; but, as Mr. l.oudun ilols not vouchsafe to explain why such husbandry should be " bad or unlortutiatc," we s-h.ill tuin to another writer who lauds it as a system uf much ndvamayc

to those who adopt it. We transcribe from the Penny Cyclopaedia. " In England, rye is mostly sown as a green crop, and when led off early in the spring with sheep, the land is invigorated, and will bear excellent potatoes or turnips the same year. This practice connot bo sufficiently recommenced; and if the rye is sown very early in autumn, it may be fed oft'in October or November, (that is to say, two or three months after sowing), when sheep feed is beginning to fail, and the turnips have not yet attained their full size, without any detriment to the succeeding spring produce, " Winter barley and winter oats have beea substituted for rye as spring fodder by some farmers ; but on land of moderate quality rye is generally preferred. It bears the severest winters, which is not the case with oats or barley. The rye which has been fed oft'very enrly may be allowed to remain for seed, it will produce more or less abundantly, according as it lias been fed of! earlier or later. "Rye will thrive upon rich wheat soils, as well as upon lighter, and, as it throws out numerous stems in rich land, it is the more profitable as fodder, although the crop of grain might not be bo abundant when the plants are too much crowded. To iiave as much green food as possible, the rye is always sown broad-cast, three bushels at least to an acre ; some sow a sack, and with advantage, It is also usually sown amongst winter tares, which the stems of the rye help to keep up from the ground : half a bushel of rye to three bushels of tares i< a fair proportion ; some farmers sow wheat instead of rye, as being stronger in the stein, but besides its being more expensive, it does not shoot so early as rye, nor 13 it so much stronger in the green stem, as is supposed. Oats are invariably sown amongst spring tares, and answer the purpose well. " When the land is in good heart and clean after wheat harvest, it may be expeditiously cultivated by means of a strong scarifier, or some similar instrument, which opens the soil several inches deep wilhput turning it over ; and rye may be sown immediately without using the plougli. This is an immense saving of time and labour, as four or at most six horses will completely stir ten acres of land in a day, which may thus be immediately sown before the wheat is out of the field, or fit to be carried. A week gained in the time of sowing may make nil the difference be- . tween a crop which can be eaten oil' before winter, and one which will only be fit for the , sheep in the succeeding spring. The weeds . which may spring up with the rye will cither j be choked by its luxuriance, or at all events t will never shed their seeds, being mown or fed oil' with the rye, and the mots ploughed in the next year. The large perennial roots will thus be more easily taken out by the harrows, . and all the annual weeds will lie destroyed." j liye, we believe, has been so little grown, as to be comparatively unknown in any of

the Australian colonies. Coinciding willi the remarks which we have just quoted, and having ascertained, in some degree, by our own practical experience in Vun Diemen's Land, the benefit to be derived from the culture of rye as a green crop, we cannot but desire to see its introduction here. We were indebted to a very enterprising and energetic Tasmunian settler, Mr. Thomas Frederick Afarzetti, for a feu- bushels of seed which lie had saved from n field of his that had been previously fed oft' with sheep. The green crop came ii.to use very early in the spring, and with such rank luxuriance, that the weeds, in a not very clean paddock, were rll'ectuully smothered, and the ground, in the long run, left in splendid ordtr for cropping with turnips. Ity thu rye fodder of his field Mr. Marzctti was enabled to fatten a lot of sheep, the cul's of his flock, —he cleansed his land, —and he harvested a sufficiency of grain to extend his own operations and to enable his neighbours to profit by the example, which ou that, and other occasious, he was so alert in setting them. The straw of rye is the very best that cati be used for the purposes of fodder, it is valueless, being hard and pithy. It is well adapted for hat aud bonr.et making, lor which purpose it is not only employed at the well known factories of Dunslable, but, by a peculiar process of the Rles.r3. Muir of Greenock, it has-been prepared so as to imiIjjf the celebrated hats of Leghorn, sufficient, we imagine, has been said to convince you that if, upon trial, the climate should be found congenial, the culture of rye Cannot fail to be beneficial to the farming interests of New Zealand.