1Q8 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



English barley about . . . .21^ gallons. 



Scotch barley 'i loj " 



Scotch bigg " ICj " 



Or that English barley was 11 per cent, superior 

 to Scotch, and full 12 per cent, above Scotch bigg, 

 or winter barley. 



The value of the several kinds of grain as an ar- 

 ticle of food may be estimated from the following 

 table, the flour being of good household or famil5' 

 quality : 



Wheat, if weighing 60 lbs., gives flour 48 lbs., bread 64 lbs 

 Rye . . . 54 . . . . 42 . . .56 

 Barley . . . 48 . , , .374 . .50 

 Oats . . . 40 . . . . 22i . .30 



{Brit. Hits.) 



The analysis of barley by Sir H. Davy gives, as 

 contained in 100 parts : 



79 per cent, of mucilage or starch, 

 7 " of saccharine matter, 

 6 " of gluten or albumen. 



Owing to the deficiency of this latter substance 

 or gluten, barley flour, like that of oats, buckwheat, 

 or potatoes, cannot by itself be made into bread, but 

 is mixed with wheat flour, or eaten in the form of 

 cakes, when it is very wholesome and palatable. 



Barley is, perhaps, one of the most diflicult grains 

 to secure in good condition ; as, if suffered to stand 

 until the berry is perfectly dry and hard, the head 

 will frequently drop down, owing to the brittleness 

 of the straw ; if cut too early, the grain will shrink 

 and lose in weight ; and as it cannot, when cut in an 

 unripe state, be put into barns or stacks without 

 certain injury by heating, so, in unfavourable weath- 

 er, it is very apt to become of a black colour, and 

 to lose the clear yellowish-white tinge so charac- 

 teristic of good and well-cured barley. The unusu- 

 ally fine state of our atmosphere, and the clear, dry 

 air of our summers, render the proper curing of bar- 

 ley a much less difficult task here than in the moist 

 chmate and under the cloudy skies of Great Britain. 



