14 FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 



< The last Spring,' says he, < being remarkably dry, I 

 soaked my seed-barley in the black water taken irom a re- 

 servoir which constantly receives the draining of my dung- 

 heap and stables. As the light corn floated on the top I 

 sktmed it off, and let the rest stand twenty-four hours. On 

 taking it from the water, I mixed the grain with a suffi- 

 cient quantity of wood-ashes, to make it spread regularly, 

 and sowed, three fields with it. The produce was sixty 

 bushels to the acre. I sowed some other fields with the 

 same seed, dry ; but the crop, like those of my Neighbors, 

 was very poor, not more than twenty bushels an acre, and 

 i much mixed with weeds. I also sowed some of my seed 

 dry, on one ridge, in each of my former fields; but the 

 produce was very poor, in comparison to the other parts of 

 the field.' 



Adding some saltpetre to the liquor, in which the barley 

 is soaked, will probably be found of great service. 

 See SOWING. 



It is injurious to harvest this grain before it is thoroughly 

 ripentd ; and, after it is cut, it should lie a night or two in 

 the dew, in order to make the beards come off more easily 

 in threshing. 



This grain, like many others, will degenerate so much 

 in a few years as not to be worth cultivating, if the seed be 

 not frequently changed. The Farmer ought, therefore, to 

 procure new recruits of seed brought from some considera- 

 ble distance. It may be advisable, also, to change the kind 

 of barley, in order to ascertair/which is most suitable to 

 the soil. These are various: There is the two-rowed, the 

 four-rowed, and the six-rowed barley; and there is also a 

 species of barley which has no husk upon it, which is 

 commonly called Spelt. (See SPELT) The six-rowed bar- 

 ley is sowed in England and Ireland, as a Winter-grain, 

 and is there called bear, bere, or barley big. It shells very 

 much, if suffered to stand until it is sufficiently ripe. The 

 four-rowed barley has generally been cultivated in this and 

 the neighboring States ; probably because, in them, it has 

 generally been found the best for cultivation. 



As in some parts Farmers have attempted to cultivate 

 this grain without success, it may be well to observe, that 

 perhaps the cause of this failure was owing to their lands 

 not having been made sufficiently rich; to not having been 

 ploughed and harrowed sufficiently ; to not having sowed on 

 them a sufficiency of seed (tor, if this be not done, this 

 grain will often be choaked with weeds); to seed, which 

 had become degenerated, by having been too long used in 

 one part of the country ; or, perhaps, to the kind of barley 

 not having been suitable to the soil. If the Farmer has 

 satisfied himself as to all these particulars, and still finds 



