SECALE, RYE; a genus of the digynia order, belonging to the triandria class of plants. There are four species, the most remarkable of which is the ce-realis, or common rye cultivated in our fields. See AGRICULTURE, no 112.—114.
Rye is next in price to wheat, which, though inferior to it in many respects, in some others it very much resembles. It rises higher than wheat; the ear is smaller, with shorter, sharper, and rougher awns; the grain is less in size, thinner and darker; the root not so bushy as that of wheat, and therefore does not so much exhaust the soil; it is earlier in the ear by a month. It is next in weight to wheat, the bushel being from 56 to 59 pounds; where they allow nine pecks to a bushel, it sometimes reaches to 67 pounds. In several places this grain with an early kind of wheat are sown and reaped together. This mixed corn is commonly called maslin (wisellane) and also mung-corn or mark-corn, corruptly for monk-corn, because bread made of it was commonly eat in monasteries. Professor Bradley assures us, that this was the sweetest and moistest bread he ever tasted. Many others are of the same opinion in this respect. But in the article of bread, we are at present rather governed by the sight than the taste. The general use of rye is for bread, of which there was much more formerly eaten than at present, and yet there is still more of it consumed in this way than of barley. Mr King estimates the produce of rye in his time at 10,000,000 of bushels. We grow at present 8,509,216 bushels, of which 7,992,000 are spent in bread, 284,000 are consumed in other uses, and 269,216 bushels are annually exported. This amounts to 283,7981.; whereas in the last century, though we grew more, we imported considerable quantities, and consequently the nation gains very considerably by this grain. Rye-bread, in the opinion of good judges, is rather unwholesome than unpleasant. It is conceived to be of very difficult digestion, and therefore only fit for hard-working and laborious people. Besides this, it is black, heavy, and by no means pleasing to those who are not used to it; but, as appears from their continuing in the use of it, very acceptable, and agrees with such as have been accustomed to it from their youth. But this grain, being mixed with wheat, is thought from its clamminess, to contribute to keep the bread
made of it long moist, to give it an agreeable flavour, and to make it go farther, and to save the trouble of frequent baking. It yields a great deal of fine and strong spirit, and some use is made of it by the tanners.
Upon the whole, as the chief consumption of rye was in bread, and as for more than half a century past this has been continually diminishing, so we at present grow less of it than in times past, though we export more of it than we formerly did. It may, however, deserve some consideration, whether for several weighty reasons the culture of this grain should not be more attended to and encouraged; and, amongst others, for these that follow: Because it will grow almost every where, and on any soil, not only with little trouble, but, which is a circumstance not unworthy of notice, with less danger of failing than any other crop: Because, though less eaten than in former times, yet it is still in great esteem abroad, and especially in the northern parts of Europe, where the consumption of it is large, and it sells at a considerable price: and, lastly, Because our rye is thought wholesome, and much less, if indeed at all, exposed to that dreadful and deplorable malady the French call ergot (A), which frequently renders the eating it very dangerous and destructive, not to man only, but to all animals; and of course our rye from this fortunate circumstance will preserve a preference in foreign markets.