Boon VI. BARLEY. 



825 



upon it too long, because, being particularly fond of the sweet end of the stalk next the root, they bite so 

 close as to injure the future growth of the plant. 



5106. Barley is ripe when the red roan, as the fanners term it, meaning a reddish 

 colour on the ear, is gone off; or when the ears droop, and fall, as it were, double against 

 the straw, and the stalks have lost their verdure ; but in the latter case it is too ripe. 



5107. In the harvesting of barley more care is requisite than in taking any of the other 

 white crops, even in the best of seasons ; and in bad years it is often found very difficult 

 to save it. Owing to the brittleness of the straw, after it has reached a certain period 

 it must be cut down ; as, when it is suffered to stand longer, much loss is sustained by 

 the breaking of the heads. On that account it is cut at a time when the grain is soft, 

 and the straw retains a great pioportion of its natural juices, consequently requires a long 

 time in the field before either the grain is hardened or the straw sufficiently dry. When 

 put into the stack sooner it is apt to heat, and much loss is frequently sustained. 



5108. Barley is generally rut doivn in England with the cradle scythe, and either tied up or carted home 

 loose after lying in the swath some days to dry It is not apt to shed ; but in wet weather it will be likely 

 to spout or grow musty ; and therefore every fair day after rain it should be shaken up and turned: and 

 when it is tolerably dry, let it be made up into shocks ; but be careful never to house it till thoroughly drv, 

 lest it mow-bum, which will make it malt worse than if it had spired in the field. It is remarked by Lisle, 

 that poor thin barley should be cut a little sooner than if the same plants were strong and vigorous ; as the 

 straw, when the plants are full ripe, in such cases will not stand against the scythe. In this situation, 

 barley in particular should lie in swath till it is thoroughly dry. Some of his barley, which lay out in 

 swath five or six days in very fine weather, though both blighted and edge-grown, grew plump, and ac- 

 quired very near as good a colour as the best. He reckons short scythes the best for mowing lodged or 

 crumpled corn, because they miss the fewest plants; and observes, that a bow upon the scythe, which 

 carries away the swath before it, is preferable to a cradle, the fingers of which would be pulled to pieces 

 by the entangled corn, in drawing back the scythe. In Scotland and Ireland it is generally reaped with 

 the sickle, bound in sheaves, and set up in shocks. 



5109. In stacking barley many farmers make an opening in the stack from top to 

 bottom. This opening is generally made by placing a large bundle of straw in the 

 centre of the stack, when the building commences, and in proportion as it rises the straw 

 is drawn upwards, leaving a hollow behind ; which, if one or two openings are left in the 

 side of the stack near the bottom, insures so complete a circulation of air, as not only- to 

 prevent heating, but to preserve the grain from becoming musty. 



5110. The threshing and dressing of barley require more labour than those of any other 

 grain, on account of the difficulty of separating the awns from the ears. For this pur- 

 pose some threshing machines are furnished with what is called a hummelling machine, 

 already described (2799.) : and where this is wanting, it is customary to put the grain, 

 accompanied with a portion of threshed straw, a second time through the machine. 

 Where barley has been mown, the whole of the straw requires to be twice threshed, in- 

 dependently of the necessity of getting rid of the awns. 



5111. The produce of barley, taking the average of England and the south of Scotland, 

 Donaldson considers, might be rated at thirty-two bushels ; but when Wales and the 

 north of Scotland are included, where, owing to the imperfect modes of culture still prac- 

 tised, the crops are very indifferent, the general average over the whole will not probably 

 exceed twenty-eight bushels the acre. Middleton states it as varying in England from 

 fifteen to seventy-five bushels per acre. The average produce of the county of Middle- 

 sex, he says, is about four quarters of corn and two loads of straw per acre. 



5112. The uses of barley are various. In Wales, Westmorland, Cumberland, and in 

 the north, as well as in several parts of the west of Scotland, the bread used by the great 

 body of the inhabitants is made chiefly from barley. Large quantities of the barley cul- 

 tivated in England are converted into beer, ale, porter, and what is called British spirits, 

 as English gin, English brandy, &c. The remainder, beyond what is necessary for seed, 

 is made into meal, and partly consumed in bread by the inhabitants of the above-men- 

 tioned districts, and partly employed for the purpose of fattening black cattle, hogs, and 

 poultry. There is a much greater share of the Scotch barley consumed in distillation, 

 in proportion to the quantity cultivated, than of the English. Exclusive of what is 

 used for seed, the Scotch barley is either converted into beer or ale ; or made into pot- 

 barley, or into meal, for the use of the inhabitants in the more remote and less cultivated 

 parts of the kingdom ; or, lastly, into whisky. In The Report of Middlesex it is stated, 

 that much of the most ordinary barley is given to poultry : the rest is sold to the malt- 

 sters, except so much as is reserved for seed. 



BUS. But malt is the great purpose to which barley is applied in Britain. To understand the process of 

 malting, it may be necessary to observe that the cotyledons of a seed, before a voung plant is produced, are 

 changed by the heat and moisture of the earth into sugar and mucilage. Malting grain is only an artificial 

 mode of effecting this by steeping the grain in water and fermenting it in heaps, and the arresting of its 

 progress towards forming a plant by kiln drying, in order to take advantage of the sugar in distillation for 

 spirit or fermentation for beer. Trie grain of barley contains starch and sugar ; and the chemical consti- 

 tuents of both these ingredients are very nearly alike. In the process of malting, a portion of the starch is 

 converted into sugar, so that the total quantity" of sugar, and consequently the source of spirit, is increased 

 by the transformation. 



'.M14. To choose a proper sample of barley for malting, observe the directions given for choosing seed 

 barley. (5091.) 



