Rye

“ When ryes and rawnies live together in dingles, without being certificated, I call such behaviour being tolerably deep in the roving line, everything savouring of which I am determined not to sanctify. ”

“ Jenny's seldom dry:
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!
Chorus:
Comin thro' the rye, poor body,
Comin thro' the rye,
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?
(chorus)
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warl' ken?
(chorus)
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the grain;
Gin a body kiss a body,
The thing's a body's ain.
(chorus)
Ev'ry Lassie has her laddie,
Nane, they say, have I,
Yet all the lads they smile on me, ”

“ They were two men who were going home from fishing. I spoke to them and knew their voices, and we went home together.
In the autumn season the threshing of the rye is one of the many tasks that fall to the men and boys. The sheaves are collected on a bare rock, and then each is beaten separately on a couple of stones placed on end one against the other. The land is so poor that a field hardly produces more grain than is needed for seed the following year, so the rye-growing is carried on merely for the straw, which is used for thatching. ”

“ I notice that everywhere in the pastures minute young fragrant life-everlasting, with only four or five flat-lying leaves and thread-like roots, all together as big as a fourpence, spot the ground, like winter rye and grass which roots itself in the fall against another year. ”

“ I find the white melilot, Melilotus leucantha, a fragrant clover, in blossom by the roadside. We turn aside by a large rye-field near the old Lee place. The rye-fields are now quite yellow and ready for the sickle. Already there are many flavous colors in the landscape, much maturity of small seeds. The nodding heads of the rye make an agreeable maze to the eye. I hear now the huckleberry bird, the red eye, and the oven-bird. The robin, methinks, is oftener heard of late, even at noon. ”

“ Poor old warhorse you need a couple of drinks to think about things. A mottled beery smell came out through swinging doors. Inside the barkeep’s face was like a russet apple on a snug mahogany shelf.
“Gimme a shot of rye.” The whiskey stung his throat hot and fragrant. Makes a man of me that does. Without drinking the chaser he walked over to the free lunch and ate a ham sandwich and an olive. “Let’s have another rye Charley. That’s the stuff to make a man of you. ”

“ Hester was the only woman in the whole neighborhood who could twist a rope of rye-straw and wind it into a shapely, weather-proof bee-skep, and she took keen pleasure in the simple art and would have none of the new-fangled hives of sawed boards. ”

“ This is food for man. The earth labors not in vain. It is bearing its burden. The yellow, waving, rustling rye extends far up and over the hills on either side, a kind of pinafore to Nature, leaving only a narrow and dark passage at the bottom of a deep ravine. How rankly it has grown! How it hastes to maturity! I discover that there is such a goddess as Ceres. . . . The small trees and shrubs seen dimly in its midst are overwhelmed by the grain as by an inundation. They are seen only as indistinct forms of bushes and green leaves, mixed with the yellow stalks. ”

“ A wind was still running. He could hear the faint whisper of the rye, and the stronger swish as a sudden gust was upon it. No one was about. Feeling detached and impersonal, he went down a field-path between the low vines. Many little vine trees rose up in spires, holding out tender pink shoots, waving their tendrils. He saw them distinctly and wondered over them. In a field a little way off, men and women were taking up the hay. ”

“ It ripened early, for it was the Old Squire's custom to sow his rye very early in the spring. The first work which we did on the land, after the snow melted, was to plough and harrow for rye. With the rye we always sowed clover and herdsgrass seed for a hay crop the following year. This we termed "seeding down;" and the Old Squire liked rye the best of all grain crops for this purpose. "Grass seed 'catches' better with rye than oats, or barley, or even wheat," he was accustomed to say. ”

“ A damp blind beggar on a stone, who was never dry in his life, and was, of course, a mere mass of rheumatic aches and pains, is a feature common to so many perspectives in England that he need not be dwelt upon. What is precious about Rye is that with its great charm it does not insist upon being dramatically different from those hundreds or thousands of other lovely old towns. ”

“ Moreover, no boy could equal me at riding, and no people ride so well or desperately as boys. I could ride a donkey—a thing far more difficult to ride than a horse—at full gallop over hedges and ditches, seated, or rather floating upon his hinder part,—so, though anything but clever, as this here Romany Rye would say, I was yet able to do things which few other people could do. ”

“ The amount of rye grown in the United States in 1839 was more than that at ten, twenty, or thirty years later. Its cultivation for bread has rapidly decreased, but for other purposes there is an apparent increase. Rye makes an excellent green fodder crop, and is also employed for plowing under as a green manure. The straw is the primary crop in many sections, there being a good market for this excellent product. The chemical composition of rye differs somewhat from that of wheat, being poorer in albuminoids. The wheat flours average 11.09 per cent. ”

“ The earlier the variety the better. We prefer the Early Minnesota. As [93] soon as we have cleared off the next ten rods of our rye, we plant from two to four rods with turnips. The balance we sow with a mixture of Hungarian and the earliest “Canada Gray” pea. We now feed our rye until our first planting of corn and Hungarian will do to feed, when we turn under the rest of the rye stubble (curing what is left of the rye for winter) , sow half with Hungarian and the balance we sow (not plant) with sweet corn. ”

“ It yields good crops of straw and grain, both of which are valuable stock foods. In fact, the great power of rye to survive and grow luxuriantly under the most trying dry-farm conditions is the chief objection to it. Once started, it is hard to eradicate. Properly cultivated and used either as a stock feed or as green manure, it is very valuable. Rye occurs as both spring and winter varieties. The winter varieties are usually most satisfactory. ”

“ Oats they likewise rear for their horses, as well as barley for malting; but these grains bear no proportion, in point of abundance, to the rye crops.
When the rye is removed, they sow the ground with clover; not, as with us, that they may feed it off, and so enrich the soil while they extract something from it, but for the purpose of securing a supply of dry fodder for their cattle, which, all the winter over, and throughout a considerable portion of the spring and summer, are kept in their stalls. ”

“ It is not far away, but it is shut in so deftly that a stranger might pass it by close, and never see it though he went through the field of rye that stretches out to its left in a whitely ruffled sea of light. "After all," I say to myself, as I turn out of the last big field into a cool, shady alley through which a brook runs, "what does it matter if the governor is troublesome? He can't take away any of God's gifts from us ”

“ Now, rye is seldom more than two-thirds the price of wheat, and barley is seldom more than half the price of wheat. Half rye and half wheat, taking out a little more of the offal, make very good bread. Half wheat, a quarter rye and a quarter barley, nay, one-third of each, make bread that I could be very well content to live upon all my lifetime; and, even barley alone, if the barley be good, and none but the finest flour taken out of it, has in it, measure for measure, ten times the nutrition of potatoes. ”

“ My own knowledge of the face of the country was but meagre, so the landlord brought in a rough map of the south of England, and I cautioned the lads to get across London Bridge and make for the town of Maidstone, from where they could go due south, and if they happened on the coast they were to inquire for Rye and stay there until further orders. Jem Bottles, who thought he had brains in his head, said he would not be so open in telling every one we were going to Rye if he was me, because he was sure the Earl had people on the lookout, and money was plenty with his lordship. ”

“ Rough rice and clean rice are the common commercial articles.
Rye (Secale cereale) is cultivated in all northern countries. The stalk grows up to six feet, and the ears are double-rowed with a long beard. The grain is dark green and very mealy, and furnishes a good bread. It is cultivated in the cold climates of northern Europe, especially in Russia. Only small amounts are grown in the United States.
The leading rye states, in order of yields, are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York and Minnesota, which together raised nearly two-thirds of the crop. ”

“ Many prepare artificial pastures for their flocks, which may be done with a number of plants. Winter rye, or wheat sown early in the season, may be fed off in the fall, without injury to the crop; and, in the following spring, the rye may be pastured till the stalks shoot up and begin to form a head. This affords an early and nutritious food. Corn may be sown broadcast, or thickly in drills, and either fed off in the fields or cut and carried to the sheep in their folds. ”

“ The person who cuts the last corn or binds the last sheaf gets the name of the animal, as the Rye-wolf, the Rye-sow, the Oats-goat, and so forth, and retains the name sometimes for a year. Also the animal is frequently represented by a puppet made out of the last sheaf or of wood, flowers, and so on, which is carried home amid rejoicings on the last harvest-waggon. Even where the last sheaf is not made up in animal shape, it is often called the Rye-wolf, the Hare, Goat, and so forth. ”

“ When, in this climate, frost has destroyed all green vegetable life, then rye is in its prime. If sowed September 1, in duck yards, it will attain a height of eighteen inches, and if sowed thickly will crop many tons to the acre. When corn-fodder is gone, we use green clover, then turnip, cabbage and green rye in turn and then just before a snow storm we cut a large quantity of the frozen rye and pile it up in the shade, where, of course, it will neither heat or thaw. ”

“ Buy a bushel of rye, and as fast as a spot in your garden can be cleaned up, harrow, dig or rake it over, and sow the rye on broadcast. Just enough loose surface dirt to cover it and let it sprout, is all it asks. If the weather is dry, and you can get a small roller, roll it in to ensure better germination. ”

“ To grow rye straw for horse collars would be unprofitable unless you could find some local saddler who could use a little, and it is probable you could not get a summer growth of rye which would give good straw, even if you had a market for it. ”

“ The rye is yellow, and almost ripe for the sickle. The wheat and barley are of a dull green, from their swelling [891, 892] ears being alone visible, as they bow before every breeze that blows over them. ”

“ This morning I have been helping to gather apples. The principal farm labors at this time are ploughing for winter rye, and breaking up the greensward for next year's crop of potatoes, gathering squashes, and not much else, except such year-round employments as milking. The crop of rye, to be sure, is in process of being thrashed, at odd intervals. ”

“ The farmer always set a lighted candle in his window on Christmas Eve, to guide the lonesome wanderer to a hospitable hearth. [Pg 82] The very sparrows that burrowed in the straw thatch, and did it no good, were not forgotten. A sheaf of rye was set out in the snow for them, so that on that night at least they should have shelter and warmth unchallenged, and plenty to eat. At all other times we were permitted to raid their nests and help ourselves to a sparrow roast, which was by long odds the greatest treat we had. ”

“ I hunted my Merry all into the rye,
And there the poor hare was constrained to die.
With my Hickerly Tout, etc.
I hunted my Merry all into the oats
And there I cut off both his paw and his scutt,
With my Hickerly Tout, etc. ”

“ Rye's tastes were antiquarian rather than literary, and he possessed a great store of information relating to old English literature and to mediæval architecture and antiquities. He also practised etching. ”

“ This example shows how simple the whole subject is, and how easily the philology business could he run by a child six years of age.
Country. The origin of this word is, to say the least, odd. City people were accustomed to visit the rural districts at about the time when rye was ripe, and they were generally amused by the farmer's pereginations around his rye. Farmers always count rye-stacks in the morning, in order to discover whether any of them have been lifted during the night. ”

“ The indication of wild rye given by several authors should scarcely ever be accepted, for it has often happened that Secale cereale has been confounded with perennial species, or with others of which the ear is easily broken, which modern botanists have rightly distinguished.1871 Many mistakes which thus arose have been cleared up by an examination of original specimens. ”

“ Peningo, the point or neck of land forming the southeastern extremity of the town of Rye, [FN] was interpreted by Dr. Bolton, with doubtful correctness: "From Ponus, an Indian chief." The neck is some nine miles long by about two miles broad and seems to have been primarily a region of ridges and swamps.
[FN] Rye is from Rye, England. The derivative is Ripe (Latin) , meaning, "The bank of a river." In French, "The sea-shore." ”