AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 143 



broad-cast, generally on the fresh furrow, and harrow in 

 both ways ; and those who have a roller use it in the finish- 

 ing operation. It gives a smooth surface, breaks down the 

 lumps, brings the earth in contact with the seed, and if grass 

 seeds have been sown, its use is doubly beneficial. I steep 

 my seeds twenty-four hours in a weak solution of nitre, the 

 crude kind of which costs me only eight cents per pound 

 by the quantity. From the analysis and observations of 

 Grisenthwaite, there is reason tj believe that this salt is 

 peculiarly beneficial to the barley crop, the grain yielding it 

 on analysis. I have made no comparative experiments, but 

 I think this step serviceable. I have applied to this grain, 

 as a top-dressing, with singular success, the powdered dung 

 of pigeons and dunghill fowls, at the rate of twenty to thirty 

 bup'hels the acre. 



' The crop admits of no after-culture when sown broad- 

 cast. Yet the application of the roller, when the plants are 

 two or three inches high, is no doubt salutary, especially if 

 there have been no considerable rains. Rolling gives a salu- 

 tary compression to the soil, which in the spring is apt to 

 be loose and porous, and full of cracks, by the alternation 

 of freezing and thawing, or of wet and dry weather ; it de- 

 stroys many insects ; and, above all, it partially buries the 

 crowns o: the plants, and introduces a multiplication of seed 

 stalks, i can recommend the practice from experience. 

 When grass seeds are sown with barley, the luxuriance of 

 the young grass sometimes chokes the grain, robs it of 

 nutriment, and sensibly diminishes the product. To obviate 

 this evil it iias been recommended to sow the grass seeds 

 after the barley has come up, and to cover them with a light 

 harrow and a roller ; and it is said, and I think with truth, 

 that this operation will not materially injure the grain. In 

 dry seasons, the crop is sometimes attacked by worms, 

 while young. In this case the roller should be applied and 

 sufficient weight added to require the draught of two or 

 three cattla. 



' Time and Method of Harvesting. When the soil is rich 

 and the season propitious, this grain is very liable to lodge. 

 If this happens after it has blossomed, no material injury is 

 sustained in the product ; if before, the crop is greatly di- 

 minished. This shows the danger to be apprehended from 

 making the soil too rich, and of applying fresh manure. 

 Barley is known to be ripe by the disappearance of the red- 

 dish cast on the ear, or what the English farmers term red 



