CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 103 



This is the particular period for cutting, as, if suffered to stand'longer, the 

 heads break off, and the grain wastes with the slightest touch. And it may be 

 cut with the cradle, sickle, or scythe, according to circumstances. If it stands 

 straight, and is not too heavy, the cradle is to be preferred; if heavy, or lodged, 

 the sickle or scythe. But as the grain is yet soft, and the straw contains much 

 moisture when it ought to be cut, it should be suffered to become well dried in 

 the swath before it is bound in sheaves, or carried to the barn or stack. If cut 

 with the cradle or sickle, it is bound in sheaves; but the more common prac- 

 tice is to cut the crop with the scythe, rake the ground, and load it with the 

 barley fork. 



"Barley improves for malting by lying till October before it is threshed; 

 though it is often threshed immediately from the field. The great difficulty in 

 preparing it for market is to rid it of the awns. This may be done with flails, 

 after it has passed once through the fanning mill; and, where it is in great 

 quantities, it may be spread from four to six inches upon the barn-floor, and 

 trodden with horses. 



" Produce and profits. The average product in England is stated by DONALD- 

 SON at thirty-two bushels per acre. The product in New York varies from 

 fifteen to seventy bushels, according to season and soil; and I think the average 

 is somewhat short of that of Great Britain. Compared with wheat, its pro- 

 duct is as two or two and a half to one; compared with oats, about equal, pro- 

 vided the soil is adapted to this grain. It is, however, to be remembered, that 

 neither wheat nor oats are adapted to a barley soil; the first requiring a more 

 stiff and tenacious, and the latter amorecold and moist location. Theaverage 

 price of barley is at least two-thirds that of wheat. Supposing wheat, then, to 

 oe one dollar and twelve cents ihe bushel, and the product fifteen bushels per 

 acre, and barley to be seventy-five cents, and the product of an acre thirty 

 bushels, and the expense of cultivation equal, the profits of the barley will be 

 nearly as three to two compared to wheat. Barley, besides, is a less preca- 

 rious crop, is subject to fewer diseases, and has fewer insect enemies to en- 

 counter than wheat. 



"A correspondent of the Bath Agricultural Society writes, 'The last spring 

 being remarkably dryp I soaked my seed barley in the black water taken from 

 a reservoir, which constantly receives the draining of my dung heap and sta- 

 bles. As the light grains floated on the top, I skimmed them off, and let the rest 

 stand twenty-four hours. On taking it from the water, I mixed the grain with 

 a sufficient quantity of sifted wood ashes, to make it spread regularly, and sowed 

 three fields with it. The produce \v;is >my bushels per acre. I sowed some 

 other fields with the same seed dry, but the crop, like those of my neighbours, 

 was very poor, not more than twenty bushels per acre, and mixed with green 

 corn and weeds when harvested. I also sowed some of my seed dry on one 

 ridge in each of my fields, but the produce was very poor, in comparison with 

 the other parts of the field.'" 



Barley, on account of the softness of its stem, and tendency 

 of its ears to vegetate, is more apt to be injured, and even de- 

 stroyed by wet weather, than any other of the cereal grasses. 

 For this reason, the safer course, in a humid climate, is to place 

 it, when cut down, in sheaves and shocks, and not to allow it, 

 as is frequently practiced, to lie loose upon the ground. 



Barley being more subject to injury from heating, requires 

 more precaution in the securing of it than any other grain. By 

 heating in the stack it quickly becomes discoloured and injured. 

 It is generally threshed and prepared in the same manner as 

 wheat. 



The straw of barley is employed partially for fodder, but 

 most chiefly for litter. It is lighter than the straw of oats and 

 wheat, and less esteemed than either. 



