MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



ence, the two-rowed is preferred, it being the largest and plumpest grain. No 

 difference is perceptible in the varieties as food for stock. The two-rowed is 

 much the most generally cultivated in this region. 



2. Time of Soicini'-. — As early in the season as the ground can be got into 

 proper condition, is with this, as with all the other cereal grains, the best lime 

 for sowing. The early crops are almost invariably the best. Barley, however, 

 requires that the ground be in a dry, mellow condition at the time of sowing. It 

 will do to sow it late — as late as oats — with no greater depreciation in the crop 

 than follows the late sowing of the latter. It is customary with our farmers to 

 get in their spring wheat first, barley second, and oats third. 



3. Quantify of Seed Sown. — Full three bushels are required to the acre. Of 

 the iwo-rowed, the grains being larger, I sow at least three bushels and a peck. 



4. Kind of Land adapted to it — Dry loamy or gravelly soils ; but it will flour- 

 ish in any of our loose soils which are sufficiently rich and dry. It fails on stiff 

 clays, and on all wet, cold lands. 



5. P reparation of the Soil. — It requires about the same preparation, by plow- 

 ing and harrowing, as spring wheat. It requires land, too, as rich as prime wheat 

 land. On poor and worn-out soils, oats are more profitable. It has one peculiar- 

 ity which distinguishes it from all the other cereal grains : it will yield well, and 

 the ears will fill, on highly manured lands, on which the others would run to 

 straw, fall down, and entirely fail to fill. Earley, under such circumstances, will 

 fall down, like the other grains, but the ears will fill when it is lying nearly flat 

 on the ground. I always have it, therefore, follow highly manured hoed crops, 

 in my rotation. I frequently apply sixty two-horse loads of manure to the acre 

 for turnips. If I follow them with wheat, it always fails ; and it would require 

 no experiment to demonstrate the folly of sowing oats under such circumstances. 

 Barley will generally fall down, but I have raised sixty, and even more, bushels 

 per acre on soils in that condition. This year I had a small patch of it mixed 

 with flax, on excessively manured land adjoining a barn. The growth was ex- 

 tremely rank, and a whirling wind threw it down, and twisted and tangled it m 

 a manner I never before saw equaled, about the time the grain began to set. — 

 While this went on ripening, the roots put out a new set of shoots, which stood 

 up. At harvesting, the first heads were full of fine plump grain, and the barley, 

 though much smaller, was sufficiently advanced to cure, on the second growth. 



6. As a Covering for Grass. — It is generally preferred, by those who cultivate 

 it, to any other crop, for this purpose. I have never had my grass seeds fail 

 with it. 



7. Liability to Injury. — It is less liable to injury than any other grain crop 

 with which I am acquainted. Its tendency to fill, when down, has been alluded 

 to. No insect enemies have yet attacked it, so far as I am aware. I have never 

 known it to rust, though oats are very prone to on my lands. It has a remark- 

 able power of resistintj drouth. Its greatest enemy is continued rainy, warm 

 weather, at the time of harvesting. It sprouts readily after it is cut, which seri- 

 ously injures the grain. I have known crops of it injured in this way, though I 

 never had one of my own thus injured, nor do I think it very necessary. 



8. Difficulty in the Process of Cicrtng. — It cures with as much facility as any 

 other grain, and is cut with as little labor, when taken in season. It should be 

 cut when the kernels are in a doughy state, and while the straw is somewhat 

 greenish, and stands erect. Left until dead-ripe, the straw "crinkles," and is 

 cut with more difficulty, and the grain shells out in handling it. When it stands, 

 it is cut with the cradle, raked and bound, exposed in shocks (where two rows 

 are set up loosely together, without any cap) for a day or two, and then carted 

 in. If the straw is green, it is generally left a day or two in swath, before bind- 

 ing; but care must be taken that it does not cure loo much, on account of shell- 

 ing. If the crop is down or " lodged," it is cut with a scythe, suffered to lay on 

 the ground a day or two, raked into swaths and cocked like hay, or, if already 

 dry enough, carted in. It may be raked with a horse-rake, if not too dry. This 

 IS a cheap way of harvesting barley, but it is liable to the objection that the un- 

 bound straw takes up an entirely disproportionate amount of barn-room. It is 

 also difficult to stack it unbound, tlie straw being short and singularly " slippery." 



9. Its Value for Ferdim: Slock. — According to the careful experiments of 

 Thaer, tlie coniparative values uf wlieat, barley and oats, ui feeding cattle, are 



