HARVESTING OF BARLEY 335 



dr)' as quickly as possible, so that it might be subject as little 

 as possible to the rains and dews before reaching the stack. 

 The severity of the beards and the shortness of the culms made 

 it almost impossible to bind by hand. With the self-binder, it 

 is the easiest of our cereal crops to bind. The shocking is now 

 the most unpleasant operation. Barley of as good color is not 

 obtained ordinarily when the sheaves are bound as when they 

 are left open, chiefly because it is necessary to allow it to be 

 long exposed to the weather before stacking or threshing. Con- 

 siderable improvement in color may be effected by threshing 

 the cap sheaves separately, and using the grain from them for 

 food for domestic animals. 



461. Threshing. — Pieces of broken grains containing no 

 embr}'os are valueless for the production of malt, since their 

 contents do not become soluble. Moreover, 

 they are harmful, since such grains become 

 covered with mould, serving as a center of 

 infection to the sprouting grains, and thus 

 injuring the malt. Grains that have the ends a 

 of the hulls broken off too closely ; a portion 

 of the hull peeled off ; or grains that are 

 merely bruised, although germinating, are 

 also liable to be attacked with mould. P-^'-.°f^p;'<«°^ barley. 



showing the influence 



Special care should be taken, therefore, in of threshing upon per- 

 threshing barley, not to break or bruise the !r'^7"!' T'^'^T 



o •' ' the cylinder to strike 



grains. It is better to leave a little of the the spike in the direc- 

 beard on than to injure the grains. This ''°?/'^' 'r^^'"" "'' 



■' *^ Will be broken off prop- 



will reduce the weight per bushel, but malt- eriy, while those on 



sters are coming to recognize that high weight ^[^ ' ortll'e'^usk^o^ 



per bushel is less important than injured flowering giume with 



grains, and that no harm results from leaving ^^'"'' ^^^^'' ^^'"'^'^ 



on a little of the beard. Care should be taken to regulate the 



number and closeness of the concaves of the threshing machine 



and not to run the cylinder at too high a rate of speed. Since 



