57 6 AGRICULTURE. 



Virginia in 1611. By the year 1648, it was raised in abundance 

 in that colony, but it afterwards diminished in quantity. It is 

 chiefly consumed in the manufacture of malt and spirituous 

 liquors, while some is fed to hogs and other stock. 



Six species of varieties are cultivated : 



Two-rowed barley ; two-rowed naked barley ; two-rowed sprat, 

 or battledore barley ; six-rowed barley ; six-rowed naked barley ; 

 six-rowed sprat, or -battledore barley. Of these, again, there 

 are some thirty sub-varieties, such as the chevalier barley, the 

 Hudson's Bay, etc. 



The two-rowed variety is most commonly cultivated. The 

 sub-varieties are distinguished by the quantity of their grain, 

 their period of ripening, and productiveness. In mild climates 

 barley is sown like wheat, in the fall, and is known as winter 

 barley. Occasionally the color of the corolla is black. In the 

 naked barley, the corolla is not attached to the grain, and it 

 thus resembles wheat. It was introduced into England in 1768, 

 and is known in the United States, but in neither country does 

 it appear to be much cultivated. The sprat barley has the spike 

 short and conical, the awns long and spreading, and the seeds 

 more compressed than in the first sort. The straw, also, is very 

 short. It is little cultivated. In six-rowed barley, three rows 

 of flowers on each side of the spike are fertile, and consequently 

 three rows of .grains on each side are perfected. The chief 

 sub-variety of this is known as bere or bigg. It is more hardy 

 and productive than the two-rowed, and is used for fall sow- 

 ing. In Europe it is much cultivated ; in the United States but 

 little. 



Malt is barley which has been made to germinate by moisture 

 and warmth, and afterwards dried, by which the vitality of the 

 seed is destroyed. By this process, a peculiar nitrogenous 

 principle, called diastase, is produced. This, though it does not 

 constitute more than -g-J-g- part of the malt, serves to affect the 

 conversion of the starch of the seed into dextrine and grape 

 sugar. One hundred pounds of barley yield about 80 pounds of 

 malt, part of which difference is the loss of the water previously 

 contained in the barley. Thompson gives the following compar- 

 ative table of barley and malt from the same grain, showing the 

 change which takes place in the organic constituents : 



