Yield.
A ton of rye-straw per acre is accounted a good yield, and the usual thresherman's esti mate is sixteen to twenty bushels of grain to each ton of baled straw. The writer in 1905 grew on one measured acre 3,305 pounds of baled straw and twenty-seven bushels and twenty-two pounds of grain, exclusive of scat terings which would probably have made the straw about thirty-five hundred pounds and the grain twenty-nine bushels. This, so far as straw is concerned, seemed to be about all that could possibly grow on an acre. It was on soil rich enough so that in the same field the wheat in spots was badly lodged. While on good land and under favorable conditions the yield of rye is generally less than that of wheat, and while thirty bushels of rye is a very exceptional yield, yet the average pro duction per acre as reported by the 'United States Department of Agriculture is larger in the case of rye. On the other hand, wheat can be made to pro duce more to the acre than can rye. For the five years 1900-1904, the average yield of rye per acre was 15.6 bushels, against 13.5 bushels for wheat. This is explained by the fact that most of the rye is grown in the older states where culture and soil preparation are more thorough, while the average yield of wheat is reduced by the great acreage in states where less careful methods of soil prepa ration and fertilization result in a low average per acre. The average yield of rye in the South Atlantic states is reported as only a little more than seven bushels per acre.
Harketing.
Only one class of rye is recognized in the grain trade, and this grades as Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, varying from that which is bright, dry and well cleaned down to that which is damp, musty or in had con dition from any cause. The legal weight of a bushel of rye is fifty-six pounds in nearly all the states.
For the five years 1900-1904, the average price of export rye at New York was 56 cents and for wheat 69.2 cents. While the exports of rye are very small as compared with other grains, yet during the five years 1900 to 1904, inclusive, about 25 per cent of the total crop was exported.
Uses.
Grain for feed.—Rye constitutes the main bread grain of more than one-third of t h e inhabitants of Europe, but in America it is used mainly as a food for animals. The fact that it carries comparatively little protein does not as a rule commend it for feeding dairy cows. Apart from its composition it has, for some reason, a distinctly bad reputation among dairymen, it being averred that it causes cows to "dry up," although there does not seem to be any real scientific basis for this idea.
In the districts where rye is grown, it is often ground and mixed with wheat bran or oats as a feed for horses doing heavy, slow work, and they keep in excellent condition on it. However, owing to the heavy, sticky, viscid mass that ground rye forms when moistened, it should always be fed mixed with some bulky material to lighten it. Used as a food for hogs, especially in connection with dairy by-products, it is always regarded as very satisfactory. Poultry, however, will refuse rye as long as any other grain is available.
Pasturing of rye.—The writer has learned from many years of experience in the fall-grazing of rye that it will force a yield of milk beyond any other food, young wheat only excepted. A herd may be well fed in the fall and be giving good returns, but if turned out on a luxuriant growth of rye for a few days the increase in milk will be astonishing. While such fall-pasturing of rye is an incidental and perhaps not very usual practice, yet there are years when the food thus secured will add very considerably to the total net income secured from the crop. If stock is kept off in very wet times when the ground would poach, and is not allowed to graze it too closely, such pastur ing does not appear greatly to reduce the crop. Sometimes in warm, moist falls when the plants have made excessive growth, pasturing may actu ally he beneficial. Spring pasturing is frequent.