TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 189 



Another mode of cultivatincf corn has been suggested by the 

 exuberance of my present crop of barley wheat. It seems to me, 

 that it is possible, at St. Helena, to raise a double crop on the 

 same field ; that is, one of green fodder, the other of corn. This 

 may be accomplished by reaping (at six or seven weeks growth) 

 the green crop in parallel alleys. If these alleys are two feet wide, 

 and six feet apart, and are crossed by others at right angles 18 

 feet asunder, they would form beds, G feet by 18 ; or of 108 

 square feet. Thus a current of air would be admitted all around 

 and through these beds, by which the growth of the corn might be 

 promoted sufficiently without thinning. The effect of this mode is 

 to be ascertained by the barley wheat sown on the 7th of July last. 



That barley wheat is a crop of great importance in St. Helena, 

 I have clearly demonstrated in several of the St. Helena Registers; 

 and that it might be of infinite utility in the United Kingdoms, 

 by keeping down the high price of bread, appears to me very 

 possible. It is as easy to grind and make it into meal as wheat 

 itself; and if this meal were mixed with one half, or a third of 

 wheaten flour, it is likely it would make a pleasant and whole- 

 some bread. 



When, to these circumstances are added, that 60 bushels can 

 be obtained from one bushel sown on an acre ; that it will grow 

 on lands (without manure) of very inferior fertility to tiiose re- 

 quired for wheat crops ; and also that it yields the finest sort of 

 malt, it seems truly surprising that a grain so valuable, in many 

 respects, should have been hitherto so very little noticed in 

 England. 



The only accounts I have as yet read of it, are by Warren 

 Hastings, Esq. ;* by Mr. C. W. Paget ;t and by R. Flower, of 



* Retrospect of Discoveries, No. 25. 



t Agricultural Magazine, No. 3.0. Retrospect, No. 26. 



