306 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



iu cold. The heard wheats are solid, compact, and almost transparent, and 

 ■when broken in two present a very white appearance. The soft wheats 

 have no opaque coat, and yield to the pressure of the finger and thumb, 

 they are best fitted for vinous fermentation in distilling and brewing, be- 

 cause they contain the most starch. AVheat varies much according to the 

 different countries in which it is grown ; northern Europe is not favorable 

 to its cultivation. In Sweden, home grown wheat is rarely met with ; rye 

 fiour is common, but is baked into bread only in the spring and fall, con- 

 sequently it is difficult to masticate. 



Wheat rolls may sometimes be seen on the tables of the rich, but this is 

 of rare occurrence. A baker was once requested to make five dollars 

 worth for a sea captain, and he required security for the payment, for fear 

 if so large a quantity was left upon his hands he could not dispose of it, 

 even though the town contained twenty-five thousand people. The finest 

 wheat in Europe grows in Sicily, and is of two kinds, the one is a long, 

 plump grain, and is generally boiled for the table, as a substitute for rice ; 

 the other is soft, very white, and is manufactured into bread. Neither 

 variety is exported, owing to government restrictions. 



Wheat is, unfortunately, liable to smut, mildew, and blight, principally 

 occasioned by fungi, which may be observed through the medium of the 

 microscope, attached to the ears and stems, constantly engaged in intro- 

 dviclng a deleterious matter which destroj^s the nourishing principle of the 

 grain. Wheat injures, immediately, if stacked before quite dry, or if a 

 wet harvest prevents cutting in proper season ; the sweetest and best is 

 always that which is thrashed as taken from the field. 



BAKLEY. 



Next in importance to wheat may be classed barley, which possesses 

 one great advantage over it, and that is, it may be grown in a far greater 

 range of climate, bearing drought, cold and heat, with impunity'-, grows on 

 a light soil, comes early to maturity in northern climates, where wheat 

 will not flourish at all. The inhabitants of Lapland grow it in six weeks. 

 The Spaniards have two crops in a season. Its native country is unknown, 

 but I imagine it was Egypt, from the fact that they have grown it from 

 the earliest antiqu.ty. The llomans used it for bread, as do the inhabi- 

 tants of Scotland, Wales, and several counties in England at the present 

 time. In the south of Great Britain it is principally raised for malt 

 liquors, and is found the best for that purpose, when grown on light chalk 

 soils, which causes the grain to be thin in skin and rich in color ; conse- 

 quently the barley grown in Norfolk is quite celebrated for its malting 

 properties, and the brewers cannot be induced to purchase the barley raised 

 in Durham, even at a much lower price, if the Norfolk is in market, it is, 

 when unfit for malting, used in those districts for the purposes of fattening 

 hogs and horned stock. If grown on clay soils it will be found coarse and 

 unfit for malting ; on loam, plump, full of meal, and fine for bread. Good 

 malting barley always increases during germination, in the process, one- 



