H OR 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTION A RY. 



H O R 



703 



Brining and liming seed-barley previously to sowing it, is a 

 common practice, which is reprobated by some, who think even 

 liming prejudicial. Such as are of the latter opinion, recom- 

 mend the sprinkling a little soot in the water, to secure the 

 seed from insects. It is certain that Barley which has been 

 wetted for malting, and begins to sprout, will come up sooner 

 in a dry seed-time ; and in such a season this grain will not 

 only lie long in the ground, but come up and ripen very un- 

 equally. To avoid these evils, and give the infant Barley an 

 advantage over seed-weeds, and a chance of coming to mar- 

 ket sooner, it seems a good method to steep the seed in- 

 tended for sowing. This may be either done in clean water, 

 or the drainings of the dung-heap, in which it may lie covered 

 for twenty-four hours, or even longer, if the land be dry, and 

 there be no likelihood of rain for ten days. Sow the grain 

 wet from steeping, without any thing, or with sifted wood- 

 ashes. The sower must put in a fourth or a third more seed 

 in bulk than he would of dry grain, the seed being swelled 

 in that proportion; and he may expect it up in a fortnight at 

 farthest. The common method of sowing Barley is broad- 

 cast at two sowings ; the first harrowed in once, the second 

 twice. In Norfolk, almost all the Barley is sown under- 

 furrow ; that is, the surface having been smoothed by the 

 harrow and roller, the seed is sown and ploughed under 

 with a shallow furrow: a method admirably adapted to a 

 light dry soil ; and indeed to any soil which is light enough 

 to produce good Barley, provided it be rendered sufficiently 

 fine, and the seed be not buried too deep. However, if the 

 season be wet, and the soil cold and heavy, good farmers not 

 unfrequently sow Barley above, as is the general custom in 

 other countries. And this seems to be a reasonable practice ; 

 for in a dry spring and light land, sowing under seems most 

 eligible ; and in a cold spring, or when the soil is rough w-ith 

 clods, sowing above appears to be equally good management. 

 Drill-sowing. Grain sown by hand broadcast must fall 

 at unequal depths; the seeds constantly sprout at different 

 times : that which is buried where the earth is moist soon 

 appears, whilst such as is near the surface lies baking in the 

 heat of the sun, and does not vegetate till plentiful rains have 

 moistened the soil : hence that inequality of crop to which 

 Barley is particularly liable. Of the two common methods of 

 sowing Barley, ploughing-in buries too deep, and that sown 

 under tlie harrow is too much exposed to birds; whereas by 

 the drill the seeds are all regularly deposited at their proper 

 depth. To this advantage peculiar to drilling, we may add 

 the saving which is made in the seed, and the opportunity 

 this plan affords of keeping the crop perfectly clean by hoe- 

 ing. The quantity of seed used in drilling by different per- 

 sons is from six peeks to three bushels ; but it is bad economy 

 in general to be too niggardly of seed, and therefore it is not 

 advisable to sow less than two bushels on an acre. If, how- 

 ever, it should be thought proper to use even three bushels, 

 that will secure a considerable saving. Drilling indeed can- 

 not be so well practised on heavy soils ; but it may have place 

 on those which are light and friable, which are peculiarly 

 adapted to Barley. Such soils as are not injured by horses 

 going repeatedly on them, and being almost always under 

 command, the horse-hoe may go over them whenever the far- 

 mer is most at leisure. Dr. Hunter, in his Georgical Essays, 

 gives the following account of an experiment upon this sub- 

 ject. " In the spring of the year 1769, I sowed an acre of 

 Barley in equidistant rows, with the drill-plough, in a field 

 which was sown with the same grain, and upon the same day, 

 broadcast. The broadcast took three bushels per acre ; the 

 drill required only six pecks. The drills were eight inches 

 aunder, and the seed was lodged about two inches within 



the soil. The acre was drilled within the hour. In the course 

 of growing, the drilled Barley seemed greener, and bore a 

 broader leaf, than the broadcast. When the ears were formed 

 throughout the field, the ear of the drilled Barley was plainly 

 distinguished to be nearly half an inch longer than the broad- 

 cast, and the grains seemed fuller and better fed. Being at 

 a loss to account for this, (continues Dr. Hunter,) I dug up 

 some roots of both, and found that the pipe of communica- 

 tion between the seminal and coronal roots of the drilled 

 Barley was considerably longer than in the broadcast. The 

 produce of two hundred square yards of the broadcast and 

 drilled Barley was carefully housed, and afterward threshed 

 out. The drilled exceeded the other nearly one-fifth in mea- 

 sure, and was two pounds heavier per bushel." Time of sow- 

 ing Barley. The farmer is governed by seasons, and by other 

 necessary work which he may have to perform ; but to sow 

 early when he can, is one of the most important precepts in 

 the culture of Barley. If three ploughings can be given in 

 time, it is best to get in the seed sometime in March at 

 farthest; and some farmers, rather than defer the sowing, will 

 throw in the crop on one earth. In Norfolk, they commonly 

 sow on their light lands in April, and on the moist lands in 

 May; and they think that, where they are much subject to 

 weeds, they have the best crops when they sow late. Early 

 sowing, however, has been gaining ground for some years past. 

 And it appears from an experiment accurately made by a very 

 intelligent cultivator, that more grain was produced from sow- 

 ing in January, than at any other time. The land was a deep 

 sand, valued at six or seven shillings the acre ; it had been un- 

 der Clover, and was ploughed as for Wheat in November, in the 

 middle of which month two bushels of Barley were sown and 

 harrowed in upon one earth only. The same quantity was sown 

 in the middle of every month till the following May inclusive. 

 The first sown came up a week sooner than the Wheats sown 

 on the same day by the side of it, and was very flourishing 

 till the first sharp frost set in, which damaged the blade, but 

 did not seem to affect the root. The other sowings had two 

 earths ; one cast, or half the seed, was ploughed in, and the 

 other half harrowed in ; the second sharp frost killed some 

 of the second sowing, and a good deal of the first ; but both 

 together, with the third sown in January, seemed to suffer 

 still more by the sharp cutting winds in the month of March, 

 when there was no snow to cover the blade. These three 

 sowings, particularly the first, had their plants very much 

 thinned by the frosts and winds ; although the roots that were 

 left stubbed very much in the spring, and had very long ears, 

 with from thirty to thirty-six grains in each. The sowings 

 in February and March lost few if any of their plants, and 

 were both forward enough to be harvested on the same day 

 with the preceding sowings. That sown in April was a full 

 fortnight later, and the last, sown in May, was entirely de- 

 stroyed by rooks, there being no other sown so late in the 

 neighbourhood. It would have been the same with the early 

 sowings, had not the evil been guarded against. However 

 advantageous therefore early sowing may be, yet neither this 

 nor any other laudable practice will be of any avail in open 

 fields where lands are intermixed, unless where there is a 

 general consent; and if one farmer only were to sow early, 

 he must have as many keepers as he has pieces of land, and 

 thus obtain better crops that his neighbours at a ruinous 

 expense. The whole land sown in the above experiment was 

 seventy-two square jards, or little more than two-thirds of 

 an acre ; and all the sowings were by the side of each other 

 on the same piece of land. Three swaths of each sowing, 

 twelve yards in length, where the soil was most equal, were 

 threshed out, and each parcel was dressed and measured into 



