188 - CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



a short but hot summer enables them to carry on a perfect 

 and rapid growth." 



3. The following is the generic description of the hordeum 

 hexastichon, or six-rowed barley ; (fig. 1,) " all the florets 

 hermaphrodite and awned, seeds placed regularly in six 

 row.3, has a much thicker spike than common or spring 

 barley, but is also much shorter ; the number of grains, 

 however, in the ear or spike is greater, in proportion of at 

 least three to two. The ear is seldom more than two 

 inches in length." The species is hardy and prolific, but 

 yields the coarsest sample of all the varieties grown ; the 

 grains are long, ill filled, and the awns adhere to them 

 with much tenacity. It is not much grown in this coun- 

 try, but when grown, it may either as spring or winter bar- 

 ley, it being found to answer for either one or the other. 

 There are no varieties of this species. The ripening is late, 

 a fortnight or so beyond other kinds. The proportions of 

 the parts of this species are as follows : grain, 51 ; roots, 

 12; straw, 32; awns, 5 in the hundred. The third 

 species yet to be noticed, hordeum disticJwn, the common 

 two-rowed barley, figs. 2, 3, and 4, has " ears in general 

 three or four inches long by one-third of an inch broad, 

 containing 28 or 30 grains, which are not very close set on 

 the raches ; awns extending about the length of the spike 

 beyond its point." Mr. Lawson names of this species 

 seven varieties, (1) Chevalier, (2) Annot, (3) Dunlop, (4) 

 Stains, (5) Golden or Italian, (6) Chancellor, (7) Eupton. 

 Mr. Keary, in his prize essay on ' Barley Management,' of 

 which further notice will be taken hereafter, says, that of 

 all the varieties of barley, Chevalier decidedly ranks high- 

 est for malting purposes. To the objection that it does not 

 yield so much per acre as other varieties, he states that 

 under proper cultivation, there are few sorts to be com- 

 pared with it. 



4. The following from Mr. Fyfe's paper in the "Journal of 

 the Bath and West of England Society,'' on " Farm Seeds 

 and Seeding," on the subject of barley seeds, will usefully 

 conclude this part of our subject. 



