180 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



with the roller, or, if the soil be damp at the time, with a drag 

 lightly loaded with stone." 



Barley. On account of the failure of wheat in years past, bar- 

 ley has taken its place, and is now largely sown. It succeeds best 

 upon loamy soils which are dry and mellow ; and as it requires but 

 a short time to perfect its grain, the land should be in a good state 

 of cultivation. Barley is generally sown on ground which was in 

 corn the year previous, as it is found unsafe to apply manure 

 directly to this crop, causing, as it does, a rank growth of straw, 

 which often becomes lodged before the grain is ripe. Planting 

 corn previous to sowing barley, affords a good preparation of 

 ground, for the soil is left light and generally free from weeds. 

 There are several varieties : the two-rowed, four-rowed, and a 

 variety of the four-rowed called the Canada — being the most com- 

 mon. It is sown early, from two to three bushels of seed applied 

 to the acre. Twenty bushels per acre is the overage yield, although 

 much larger amounts are often grown. The heaviest yield which 

 has come to my knowledge, is that of ninely-hvo bushels of the two 

 rowed variety being raised upon one and one-third acres. This 

 was in the southern part of the county, and upon a high ridge of 

 land, the soil being a rocky loam. It is a common practice before 

 sowing barley, to wash the seed in strong salt water, in order to 

 cleans it from foul seed, &c., and then to mix it with plaster or 

 ashes while wet. 



Barley is a crop which has but few insects to destroy it. One 

 or two species of fly prevail to some extent, and, passing their 

 larva state in the straw, sometimes greatly injure the yield. In 

 wet, backward seasons, a kind of smut called "barley brand" is 

 found to destroy much of the grain. 



Oats. This grain has been more extensively* and commonly 

 grown than any other crop of the kind. Farmers who have raised 

 this crop for a number of years, have become satisfied that it is an 

 extremely exhausting crop, and are giving up its culture for bar- 

 ley. In the newer regions of the northern towns and plantations, 

 oats are an important crop. The interval lands are plowed up, and 

 with no manure, yield crops of from fifty to sixty bushels per acre, 

 year after j'car. That the soil will not always produce such re- 

 turns, is evident from the fact that in the older portions of the 

 county, the land formerly gave the above yields, where now but 

 from eight to twenty-five bushels are obtained. In years past, oiir 

 farmers held the notion that oats would grow upon any land, how- 



