760 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



threshing max^hines are furnished with what is called a hummelling machine, already de- 

 scribed (2649.) ; and where this is wanting, it is customary to put the grain, accompanied 

 with a portion of threshed straw, a second time through the machine. Where barley has 

 been mown, the whole of the straw requires to be twice threshed, independently of the 

 necessity of getting rid of the ears. 



4685. The produce of barley, taking the average of England and the south of Scotland, 

 Donaldson considers, might be rated at thirty-two bushels ; but when Wales and the 

 north of Scotland are included, where, owing to the imperfect modes of culture still prac- 

 tised, the crops are very indifferent, the general average over the whole will not probably 

 exceed twenty-eight bushels the acre, Middleton states it as varying in England from 

 fifteen to seventy-five bushels per acre. The average produce of the county of Middle- 

 sex, he says, is about four quarters of corn and two load*; of straw per acre. 



4686. The uses of barley are various. In Wales, Westmorland, Cumberland, and in 

 the north, as well as in several parts of the west of Scotland, the bread used by tlie great 

 body of the inhabitants is made chiefly from barley. Large quantities of the barley cul- 

 tivated in England are converted into beer, ale, porter, and what is called British spirits, 

 as English gin, English brandy, &c. The reinainder, beyond what is necessary for seed, 

 is made into meal, and partly consumed in bread by the inhabitants of the above-men- 

 tioned districts, and partly employed for the purpose of fattening black-cattle, hogs, and 

 poultry. There is a much greater share of the Scotch barley consumed in distillation, 

 in proportion to the quantity cultivated, than there is in England. Exclusive of what is 

 used for seed, the Scotch barley is either converted into beer or ale ; or made into pot- 

 barley, or into meal, for the use of the inhabitants in the more remote and less cultivated 

 parts of the kingdom ; or, lastly, into whisky. In The Report of Middlesex it is stated, 

 that much of the most ordinary barley is given to poultry : the rest is sold to the malt- 

 sters, except so much as is reserved for seed. 



4687. But malt is the great purjmse to which barley is applied in Britain, To under- 

 stand the process of malting, it may be necessary to observe that the cotyledons of a seed, 

 before a young plant is produced, are changed by the heat and moisture of the earth into 

 sugar and mucilage. Malting grain is only an artificial mode of effecting this by steep-r 

 ing the grain in water and fermenting it in heaps, and the arresting its progress towards 

 forming a plant by kiln-drying, in order to take advantage of the sugar in distillation for 

 spirit or fermentation for beer. The grain of barley contains starch and sugar ; and the 

 chemical constituents of both these ingredients are very nearly alike. In the process of 

 malting, a portion of the starch is converted into sugar, so that the total quantity of 

 sugar, and consequently the source of spirit, is increased by the transformation. 



4688. To choose a proj^er sample of barley for malting, observe the directions given for 

 choosing seed barley. (4670.) 



4689. Of pot-barley there are two sorts, pearl and Scotch; both are produced by 

 grinding off the husk, and the pearly barley is produced by carrying the operation so far 

 as to produce roundness in the kernel. It is used in soups, gruels, and medicinal drinks. 



4690. Barley meal is ground like oatmeal or flour ; the coarser sort, with the bran, 

 is used for fattening live stock, especially pigs and poultry, but fine bolted barley flour, 

 made into a thin pottage or pudding, and spread out in thick cakes, and toasted on a hot- 

 plate of metal, forms a light breakfast bread, much esteemed in some parts of Scotland. 

 It is served in a recent state, hot, and spread with butter and honey, and eaten in several 

 folds. Two parts of barley flour, one of wheat flour, and one of rye, are said to make 

 a light and very agreeable loaf bread. 



4691. The produce of barley in flour is 12lbs. to 14lbs. of grain. Sir H. Davy found 

 1000 parts of barley meal to afford 920 parts of soluble or nutritious matter, viz. 790 

 of mucilage or starch, 70 of sugar, and 60 of gluten. 



4692. Barley straw is chiefly used for litter and packing ; it is unfit for thatch or rope 

 making, and of little value as fodder. 



4693. The diseases of barley are few, and chiefly smut, which it is found cannot be pi-e- 

 vented by pickling and liming. 



Sect. IV. The Oat. Avena Saliva, L. Trian. Dig. L. and GraminecB,J. L'Avoine,Fr.; 

 Haber, Ger. ; and Vena, Ital. 



4694. The oat is a very useful grain, and more peculiarly adapted for northern climates 

 than either wheat, rye, or barley. Its native country is unknown, unless the wild oat be 

 considered as the parent species, which is highly probable. The culture of the oat is 

 chiefly confined to latitudes north of Paris. It is scarcely known in tlie south of France^ 

 Spain, or Italy ; and in tropical countries, its culture is not attended to. In Britain 

 it has long been very generally cultivated, formerly as a bread corn, but now chiefly as 

 horse food. Of all the grain this is the easiest of culture, growing in any soil that admits 

 of ploughing and harrowing. 



