BARLEY. 61 



the grain is made to germinate is favourable to the 

 operation of converting it into malt, which is, in 

 fact, simply the process of germination induced and 

 carried forward up to and not beyond the point when 

 the maximum quantity of saccharine matter is deve- 

 loped in the grain. 



In its composition barley differs materially from 

 wheat : it contains more starch, far less gluten, and 

 about seven parts in a hundred of saccharine matter 

 ready formed, which latter constituent wheat does not 

 possess previous to germination. 



Botanical writers enumerate four distinct species 

 of barley : of these there are many varieties produced 

 by differences of soil, climate and culture. 



SPRING BARLEY Hordeum vulgare is the kind 

 most commonly cultivated in England. Of this spe- 

 cies farmers distinguish two sorts ; one the common, 

 and the other the rath-ripe barley. These, in fact, are 

 the same plant, the latter being a variety occasioned 

 by long culture upon warm gravelly soils. If seeds 

 of this kind are sown in cold or strong land, the 

 plants will ripen nearly a fortnight earlier than seeds 

 taken from other strong land ; but this holds good 

 only during the first year. This variety is said in 

 extraordinary seasons to have been returned to the 

 barn within two months in this country. Siberian 

 barley, another variety, was brought into culture in 

 the year 1768, by Mr Halliday, who received a very 

 small portion out of about a pint of seed which had 

 been presented by a foreign nobleman to the London 

 Society for the Encouragement of Arts. This variety 

 exhibits, on first coming up, a broader blade, and is of 

 a deeper green than common barley. The ears are 

 shorter, containing only from five to nine grains in 

 length, while the common sort has from nine to thir- 

 teen grains. Siberian barley arrives at maturity about 

 a fortnight earlier than other kinds. 



VOL. xv. 6 



