BARLEY. 65 



will not fail to regard those which have been sanc- 

 tioned by experience ; while the agriculturist, who is 

 bound by a servile adherence to particular months 

 and even weeks for his operations, will unwisely 

 treat as old saws such relics of the practical skill of 

 our forefathers as the lines we have quoted. Lin- 

 nccus, the great Swedish naturalist, constantly ex- 

 horted his countrymen to observe at what time each 

 tree unfolds its buds and expands its leaves. In our 

 own country, Mr Stillingfleet, an eminent naturalist, 

 made a series of very accurate observations upon 

 this interesting appearance of the spring. A farmer 

 who would keep a calendar of Nature in the same 

 manner for a lew years, and at the same time re- 

 gister his days of sowing and the issue of his har- 

 vest, would secure, no doubt, a valuable collection 

 of rules for his guidance, peculiarly applicable to the 

 exact circumstances of situation and soil amidst 

 which he pursues his calling.* 



The produce of barley, according to the quality 

 of the soil, is from three to four quarters to the acre. 

 A larger produce is not unfrequent ; and even so 

 much as seven quarters have been reaped in very 

 favourable seasons and situations. 



The average weight of a Winchester bushel of 

 barley is between fifty and fifty-one pounds, and the 

 same measure of bigg weighs but little more than 

 forty-six pounds. It is very seldom that the former 

 is found to weigh beyond fifty-two, or the latter be- 

 yond forty-eight pounds to the bushel. The average 

 length of a grain of barley, taking the mean of many 

 thousand measurements, is 0.345 inch, while that of 

 a grain of bigg is 0.3245 inch. The medium length 

 of these two species gives, therefore, as nearly as 



* See Hewitt's Book of the Seasons, p. 99. 

 VOL. xv. 6* 



