64 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



SPRAT or BATTLEDORE BARLEY Hordeum zeo- 

 criton has shorter and broader ears than either of 

 the sorts already described ; its awns or beards are 

 longer, so that birds cannot so easily get out the 

 grains, which also lie closer together than those of 

 other kinds. Sprat barley seldom, if ever, grows so 

 tall as either of the other species, and its straw is 

 not only shorter, but coarser, so as to render it not 

 desirable for use as fodder. 



It was formerly the universal practice in this 

 country to sow barley in the spring. The end of 

 March or beginning of April was the more usual 

 time, but the sowing was sometimes deferred to the 

 beginning of May. The practice in this respect has 

 somewhat varied of late, and a more early season 

 has been chosen for sowing, so that it is not uncom- 

 mon for the process to be performed in January, 

 under the idea that the produce in such cases is 

 greater. In the county of Norfolk, where the culti- 

 vation of barley is carried forward very extensively, 

 and with the greatest skill, the farmers were formerly 

 guided in their choice of seed time by a maxim 

 which had long been handed down to them from 

 father to son : 



When the oak puts on his gosling grey, 

 'Tis time to sow barley night and day ;' 



meaning, that when the oak exhibits the gray ap- 

 pearance which accompanies the bursting of its 

 buds, a few days preceding the expansion of the 

 leaves, it is then improper to lose any time in getting 

 their seed-barley into the ground. The budding and 

 leafing of the birch trees is, in Sweden, considered 

 an indication of the proper time for barley-sowing. 

 in different countries there are, of course, different 

 natural guides in the operations of husbandry j but 

 an intelligent and observing farmer, in every country, 



