Rye
Rye names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Rye an important cereal
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an important cereal. It was originally a wild grass. It is thought to have been cultivated first in the region between the Black Sea and the Caspian. There are several large bottle-brush grasses in America that are properly known as wild rye. The cultivation of rye has some advantages over that of oats, wheat, and barley. It is little subject to attack by the chinch bug. It is less readily killed by continued frost. It grows fairly well on light or exhausted land without requiring a rotation or change of crops, being in the latter respect more like timothy or wild meadow grass. Little chaff is released in threshing. Rye is raised chiefly in northern Europe. Its flour makes the black rye bread of Germany, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries. Mixed with wheaten flour it is gaining favor in America. Rye is the foundation of Kvas, the Russian national drink, of Holland gin, and of rye whiskey. Statistics for 1907-9 place the annual yield of rye as follows: Country. Bushels. United States 32,000,000 Canada 2,000,000 Great Britain and Ireland 2,000,000 Sweden 26,008,000 Denmark 18,000,000 Netherlands 14,000,000 Belgium 20,000,000 France 53,000,000 Spain 26,000,000 Italy 3,200,000 Germany 400,000,000 Austria-Hungary 150,000,000 Roumania 5,000,000 Bulgaria 7,000,000 Russia in Europe 700,000,000 Russia in Asia 30,194,000 Japan 35,000,000 TOTAL WORLD'S CROP. 1904 1,742,000,000 1905 1,496,000,000 1906 1,432,000,000 1907 1,537,000,000 1908 1,587,000,000 The Orange Judd Farmer's estimate of the American rye crop of 1909 is: State. Bushels. New York . . . . . 2,363,000 Pennsylvania . . . . . 5,175,000 Texas . . . . . 20,000 Arkansas . . . . . 30,000 Tennessee ..... 132,000 West Virginia ..... 156,000 Kentucky ..... 154,000 Ohio ..... 646,000 Michigan ..... 4,695,000 Indiana ..... 880,000 Illinois ..... 1,003,000 Wisconsin ..... 4,794,000 Minnesota ..... 1,720,000 Iowa ..... 1,044,000 Missouri ..... 225,000 Kansas ..... 686,000 Nebraska ..... 1,365,000 North Dakota ..... 648,000 South Dakota ..... 510,000 California ..... 990,000 Oregon ..... 180,000 Washington ..... 60,000 Oklahoma ..... 36,000 Other states ..... 2,640,000 Total ..... 30,152,000
Rye Secale cereale
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
Secale cereale. The glumes are one-nerved and shorter than the spikelet, the rachis is very tough; not known in a wild state. It is the prevailing grain cultivated in the S. of Sweden and Norway, in Denmark, Holland, the N. of Germany, and part of Siberia. It is cultivated to a small extent in England, and somewhat more extensively in America. It grows on poor, light soils unsuitable for wheat. The value of rye is about two-thirds that of wheat; its nutritious properties are to 64 to 71. When formerly mixed with those of wheat as about wheat it was called meslin. It is the chief grain from which Holland gin is distilled. When rye is attacked by ergot it is said to be spurred. In 1919 the United States produced 88,478,000 bushels on an area of 6,963,000 acres.
Rye a village of New York
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a village of New York, in Westchester co. It is on the New York, New Haven and Hartford, and other railroads. Its excellent beach on Long Island Sound makes it a favorite summer resort. It is chiefly a residential place and has many fine residences, a seminary for girls, a public library, and a hospital. Pop. (1910) 3,964; (1920) 5,308.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Rye has slipped from a staple to a specialty. Aiton's put the world crop at over 1.5 billion bushels in 1908, with Russia alone near 700 million; today global output is roughly a tenth of that on a bushel basis, and the leading growers are Germany, Poland and Russia. The American collapse is sharper still: Collier's recorded 88,478,000 bushels on nearly 7 million acres in 1919, while recent US harvests have run around a tenth of that acreage, the grain surviving mainly as a cover crop, a whiskey mash and an artisan bread flour. Collier's note that rye is "not known in a wild state" has been overtaken by work on its wild Secale relatives in Anatolia and the Near East, and the ergot fungus it mentions in passing later gave chemistry its lysergic acid derivatives. The Rye of Westchester County, 5,308 people in 1920, was incorporated as a city and now holds some 16,000 residents.
Written for this edition, 2026.