AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 295 



laying boards, straw, or rubbish under the stack. A better 

 way still is to have a tight jfloor of boards mounted on four 

 blocks, set in the ground, and so high from the ground as to 

 prevent the entering of vermin. 



' In building a stack, care should be taken to keep the 

 seed ends of the sheaves in the middle, and a little higher 

 than the outer ends. No fowls can then come at the grain ; 

 and the rain that falls on the outer ends will run off, and not 

 pass towards the centre. The stack should be well topped 

 with straw, that the rain may be completely turned off.' 



Oafs. It is advised to harvest oats before the straw has 

 wholly turned yellow. The straw will be of little value if 

 permitted to stand till it becomes white and destitute of sap. 

 Though oats should be well dried on the ground, after cut- 

 ting, they should not be raked nor handled when they are in 

 the driest state. They should be gathered mornings and 

 evenings, when the straw is made limber and pliable by the 

 moisture of the air. If they are housed while a little damp, 

 there will be no danger if they have been previously tho- 

 roughly dried. 



Barley. We are told by the wise men of agriculture, 

 that some of the rules which should be observed in harvest- 

 ing wheat, rye, and oats, will not apply to barley. Willich's 

 Domestic Encyclopedia states, that, ' with respect to the 

 time when barley is fit to be mowed, farmers frequently fall 

 into the error of cutting it before it is perfectly ripe ; think- 

 ing it will attain to perfect maturity if it lie in the swath. 

 This, however, is a very common error, as it will shrivel in 

 the field, and afterwards make but an indifferent malt ; it 

 also threshes with more difficulty, and is apt to be bruised 

 under the flail. The only certain test of judging when it is 

 fit to mow must be from the dropping and falling of the ears, 

 so as to double against the straw. In that state, and not 

 before, it may be cut with all expedition, and carried in with- 

 out danger to the mow. 



Dr. Deane's New England Farmer states, that ' some 

 have got an opinion that barley should be harvested before 

 it is quite ripe. Though the flour may be a little whiter, 

 the grain shrinks so much that the crop seems greatly dimi- 

 nished and wasted by early cutting. No grain, I think, re- 

 quires more ripening than this ; and it is not apt to scatter 

 out when it is very ripe. It rhould be threshed soon after 

 harvesting ; and much beating, after it is cleared from the 

 straw, is necessary in order to get off the beards. Let it lie 



