CROPS. 247 



3. BARLEY. This crop is very largely cultivated in England. 

 It otteti follows turnips; and then, clover being sown with it, a 

 good preparation is made for wheat. The uses to which it is ap 

 plied in England are principally for malting and making into beer, 

 of which the consumption is great beyond all ordinary calcula 

 tion, malt liquor being the favorite drink of all the lower classes, 

 and seldom absent from the tables of the rich and luxurious. 

 In Scotland, much barley is used for distillation into spirits. 

 Barley was formerly, and is now, in some countries, used for 

 bread ; but in this respect it yields to the finer grain, wheat, and 

 even to rye and oats. It is used to some extent for feeding cattle 

 and swine, but mainly for the purpose of malting. 



Barley is of various kinds. One kind has two rows, and an 

 other has six rows, to a head. That which has two rows only 

 is generally preferred. There are two kinds, distinguished from 

 the time of sowing, as winter and spring barley, the former being 

 sown in autumn. The alternations, in winter, of freezing and 

 thawing, are prejudicial to winter crops, and an early sowing of 

 the spring crop is strongly recommended. There is a coarse 

 kind of barley, known as bere, or bigg, which is advised to be 

 sown where the crop is to be cut for green feed. There is a 

 kind, called the naked barley, which somewhat in appearance 

 resembles wheat, and from which the corolla is spontaneously 

 separated. This kind is said to be much esteemed on the Conti 

 nent, but is not much cultivated in Great Britain. The bere, or 

 bigg, ripens much earlier than other kinds, and is consequently 

 adapted to a late climate. 



Barley is sown broadcast or by drill, and harrowed in. It is 

 advised that it should be sown always upon a newly-ploughed 

 and fresh soil, and that it should be carefully rolled, either im 

 mediately upon being sown or after the plants are above ground. 

 When barley is drilled, and it is intended to sow grass seeds 

 among it, they may be sown after the barley is hoed, and then 

 rolled ; or, if the barley is sown broadcast, they may be sown 

 with the barley. There is almost always danger, in such cases, 

 however, of burying the grass seeds too deeply. 



The cultivation of barley is so well understood in the United 

 States that I need not enlarge upon it. One of the best farmers 

 in England, whose premises I have had the pleasure of inspect 

 ing, drills in about three bushels and a half per acre, at seven 



