60 TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 



time it has been sown instead of common barley. The quality of 

 the grain is asserted not to have degenerated, but the assertion is 

 made in 1809, with a confidence something abated from that of 

 the preceding year ; and the only change of soil has been from 

 the higher to the lower lands, and vice versa, on the domain at 

 Dayelsford. It was sown at the same seasons with other barley, 

 but no trial to ascertain the relative quantity of produce has been 

 made with any satisfactory result ; but in 1805 it was believed to 

 be rather superior. The straw is said to be as good, if not better, 

 for cattle, than that of common barley, and the weight of an 

 equal measure to exceed in the proportion of 5 to 4 ; and as an 

 exhausting plant it is not deemed worse than coinmon barley r 

 and all the grasses are found to thrive well under it. Naked 

 barley has not found a purchaser when offered in market, but 

 Mr. Hastings cultivates it for the sole purpose of converting 

 it into malt, for which he considers it particularly adapted, as he 

 has seldom known one grain to be defective in vegetation at the 

 malt-house. 



The writer concludes by expressing his decided conviction of 

 the great utility and importance of the grain, and declares his 

 intention of extending his culture of it beyond the quantity' re- 

 quired for his own use, that the surplus may be for sale at the 

 disposal of the Board. He considers it to be the corn, which, 

 next to rice, gives the greatest weight of flour per acre, and it 

 may be eaten with no other preparation than that of boiling, and 

 requires little or no dressing at the mill, having no husk, and 

 consequently producing no bran." 



The superiority of this kind of barley has been further extolled 

 in some observations that follow the prece<ling communication. 

 — " When barley wheat is more widely cultivated, it will be better 

 " known, and we have no hesitation in pronouncing that the 



