Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

of the manufacture of alcohol and also contain varying proportions of rye and other cereal grains. (357) Usually the higher the proportion of rye used, the less the percentage of protein and fat and the lower the feeding value.

493. Rye Crop of the World.-The world's production of rye varied during 1898-1902 from 1,449 million (1901) to 1,678 million (1902), the average annual p.. luction being 1,550 million bushels. The following table shows the average annual production of rye for five years by continents in million bushels:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Russia produced fifty-four per cent of the entire crop during this period; Russia and Austria-Hungary sixty-two per cent. Excepting the maize crop of the United States, Russia produces more rye than any other country of any one crop.

494. Rye Crop of the United States.-The reported acreage of rye in 1899 showed a decrease of 5.4 per cent since 1889, accompanied by a ten per cent decrease in production. While barley appears to be relatively increasing in acreage, rye appears to be decreasing. In 1880 the acreage of barley was about one million in excess of that of rye; in 1900 the acreage of barley was more than double that of rye, the latter having made comparatively slow progress since 1880. The average price pcr bushel during the ninety decade was fifty-two cents, a decrease of nine cents from the previous decade. The value per acre of rye in 1899 was $5.95, the least of any of our cereals, grain alone being considered. While the annual exportation of rye, seven million bushels for 1898-1902 inclusive, is small compared with wheat or maize, it is about one-fourth the total production. There is practically no importation.

495.

Center of Production.-In 1850 the concentration of the rye crop in the North Atlantic division was greater than that of barley, eighty-three per cent of the entire crop coming from that region. The westward movement has not been so rapid as in the case of barley; the North Atlantic division furnished twenty-nine and the North Central division sixtythree per cent of the total production in 1900. The center of production in 1850 was somewhere west of the center of New York and Pennsylvania; in 1899 it had shifted westward into the State of Illinois. Fifty-three per cent of the crop of 1899 was furnished by four States: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan.

496. Yield per Acre.—The average annual yield per acre of rye during the decade 1893-1902 was approximately fifteen bushels, an increase of about three bushels over the previous decade. There is little variation in yield in the North Central and North Atlantic States; the South Atlantic States fall quite below the average. Twenty to twenty-five bushels per acre is considered a good yield. The legal weight per bushel is fiftysix pounds in Canada and all the States of the Union, except California, where it is fifty-four pounds.

497. Commercial Grades.-Only one class of rye is recognized, the following being the rules for grading this class by the Illinois Board of Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners :

"No. 1 rye.-Shall be sound, plump and well cleaned.

"No. 2 rye.-Shall be sound, reasonably clean and reasonably free from other grain.

"No. 3 rye.-Shall be reasonably sound, reasonably dry, free from must, and not good enough for No. 2.

"No. 4 rye.—All rye, damp, musty, or for any other cause unfit for No. 3."

498. History.The cultivation of rye is not nearly so ancient as that of wheat and barley. It was unknown to the ancient Egyptians. The ancient Greeks did not know it. Its introduction into the Roman Empire was hardly earlier than the

Christian era. The origin of its cultivation is supposed to be northeastern Europe.

Within modern times rye was formerly a more important crop. Even as late as the middle of the nineteenth century rye was said to have formed the principal sustenance of at least one-third the population of Europe, barley taking its place in ▸ countries nearer the Mediterranean. It was annually sown with wheat, and is yet to a large extent mixed with wheat in grinding, and the resulting flour is called meslin. The mixture of maize and rye for bread was common in New England. Relatively, rye was formerly much more important in England and the United States.

Practicums.

Make up

499. INFLUENCE OF SPECIFIC GRAVITY UPON GERMINATION. three solutions of sodium nitrate with a specific gravity of 1.20, 1.26 and 1.32, using a hydrometer to determine the specific gravity. Solutions may be placed in oatmeal dishes. Take preferably a sample of rye of rather low grade and divide into small, medium and large sized grains, either by hand or by means of sieves. (433) Then divide each sample into four groups according to specific gravity, by placing the sample in the solution of highest specific gravity; then put that which floats in the solution of next highest specific gravity, and so on. Grains can be conveniently removed from the solution by using a piece of wire gauze. Place fifty seeds of each of the twelve groups thus obtained in germinator at 70° F. and determine the number germinating in 24 hours hours

.; 120 hours

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

; 48 hours •; 72 hours .: 96 (475) Seeds may also be grown as in (433). Wheat and barley may also be treated in the same solutions, and many other agricultural seeds may be tested by varying the density of the solutions. A saturated solution of common salt and a saturated solution of ammonium nitrate made by boiling will upon cooling to 75° F. have a specific gravity of approximately 1.20 and 1.30 respectively. For further details, see N. Y. (Geneva) Bul. 256.

500. STUDY OF PLANT.-Examination under Nos. 1 to 8 preferably made in field: Nos. 9 to 16, in the laboratory.

1. Height of culm: average of ten culms to tip of upper beard Diameter below spike: average of ten culms

2.

3. Wall of culm (compared with wheat): thick; medium; thin. 4. Foliage (compared with wheat): scanty; medium; abundant. 5. Rust: leaves, per cent

6. Ergot: per cent

[ocr errors]

.; culms, per cent

7. Spike: erect; leaning; nodding.

[ocr errors]

8. Length of spike: average of ten spikes from lower joint of rachis to tip of upper outer glume

9. Number of grains per spikelet

10.

[ocr errors]

Number of grains per spike: average of ten spikes

11. Weight: one hundred grains

12. Size: length of ten grains

[merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

.; width of ten grains

[ocr errors][merged small]

13. Plumpness: plump; medium; shrunken.

14. Weight per bushel: obtained by weighing one pint.

15. Draw outer glume of rye and wheat.

16. Draw flowering glume of rye and wheat, using bearded glumes.

XXIV.

RICE.

I. STRUCTURE AND VARIETIES.

501. Relationships.-Rice (Oryza sativa L.) belongs to the tribe Oryzeae. In some respects it is rather more closely related to maize and sorghum than to the other cereals. There are a number of species of the genus Oryza growing wild in the tropics of both hemispheres. To this tribe also belongs wild rice (Zizania aquatica L.), sometimes called Canada rice and sometimes referred to as "the reeds,” the fruit furnishing food for the reed birds or bobolinks. The wild rice plant is an annual, grows usually from five to eight feet in length above water, and bears a cylindrical panicle one to two feet long. The flowering glume is bearded and encloses a slender cylindrical kernel varying in length from a half to almost an inch, and is of dark slate color when ripe. It grows somewhat extensively in marshy places throughout North America, as well as northeastern Asia, particularly around the region of the Great Lakes, where the Indians collected it in large quantities for food and even sowed it rather extensively. Wild rice furnishes a nutritious and an acceptable food. Although prolific, the tendency to shatter its seed upon ripening will probably prevent its general cultivation.1

Another species of wild rice (Zizania miliacea Mx.) is common in the Southern States, especially in the bayous of Louisiana. No use is made of the seeds, but it is said that two crops of good hay may be cut from it annually.

1 For further account of wild rice see The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes. By Albert Ernest Jenks; extract from the 19th Ann. Rpt. of the Bureau of American Ethnology.

« AnteriorContinuar »