Queries an d Answers. 95 



lawn, where, along with yuccas, carinas, and Indian corn, they have a rich 

 Oriental appearance in summer. — Robert Bedstead. Hampshire, Nov. 1831. 



How can I ripen Grapes by the middle of September, without Fires? I 



want to have firm and large berries, in bunches, in time for the Doncaster 

 races. Your advice, or that of some of your correspondents, will much 

 oblige — R. W. Doncaster, Nov. 1831. 



Beer from Sugar mixed ivith inferior Malt or unmalted Barley. — Has 

 any of your correspondents experience in the making of beer from su<*ar 

 mixed with very inferior malt or unmalted barley ? There is every reason 

 to believe that very bad malt and sugar, or unmalted barley and sugar, 

 if coarsely cut in a machine, will make a beer equal to the best malt ; 

 and it is very desirable that this point should be clearly ascertained, as it 

 would afford means of giving a very cheap drink to the people, at the 

 same time, that it would extend the sale of barley, by giving it a chance 

 of escaping the malt duty, as well as by giving an additional value to the 

 worst part of the crop. Perhaps you would invite a discussion of the 

 subject.— X Y. London, Aug. 29. 1831. 



Barley Bigg. — In answer to the queries of your correspondent X. Y., 

 Vol, VII. p. 731. respecting barley bigg, which has this year been rein- 

 troduced, for the hundredth time, from Tartary, and cultivated in the Chis- 

 wick garden as a new grain, I would say, that the seed is usually to be 

 obtained from the principal London seedsmen, as Gibbs or Wrench ; but, 

 if not there, it may be obtained with certainty from any Scotch seedsman 

 at Edinburgh, Glasgow, or Aberdeen ; though I remember, in the latter 

 place, finding some extraordinary and unaccountable difficulties raised 

 against procuring it, by Messrs. Walker, gentlemen in all other articles 

 so intelligent, so liberal, so fair, so tradesmanlike, and so satisfactory. I 

 do not apprehend that, without a special order or caution, the Scotch 

 traders would point out or observe any distinction, or be particular in the 

 sample, whether of the tetrastichon or hexastichon variety. It differs from 

 spring barley in this particular, that, whereas the latter cannot be grown to 

 advantage except in fine light soils, the former thrives very vigorously in 

 stiff cold clays. The grain is produced in greater abundance than that of 

 spring barley ; it is believed to have a more nutritious farina, but the thick- 

 ness of the skin and coarseness of the sample render it unfit for the 

 maltster, though it will make substantial good barley bread, where that 

 article is in use, and the distiller will occasionally make liberal use of it. 

 But for those who need a stout nutritive grain, on clay soils, for mixture 

 with horse meat (for which purpose it was cultivated in Italy so early as 

 the time of Columella, under the name of hordeum cantherinum), or for 

 fattening pigs or bullocks, the winter barley is well adapted, on account of 

 its hardihood, ample produce, and highly nutritive quality. Its most 

 esteemed property, however, especially in the south, is, perhaps, its adapt- 

 ation for green meat, as sheep-feed, in which use certain peculiarities are to 

 be attended to. I have not, in the south of England, where alone I have 

 tried it, found it thrive, if sown earlier than mid-September. If sown 

 sooner, it gets so forward as to be destroyed by frost. At no time during 

 the winter does it present a close or heavy burden of green meat on the 

 ground, like the dense herbage of rye or wheat. So soon as the plant 

 acquires four leaves, one or two of them decay, and are continually 

 replaced by as many others. The economical use of it in that stage of 

 growth, therefore, is, to run your sheep and lambs over it four, five, or 

 six times in the winter : it agrees peculiarly well with them, never griping 

 or scouring them, as rye does. Treading does not hurt it, even on a wet 

 clay j it succeeds on the London blue clays, and on the blue lias clays of 

 Somersetshire ; and the sheep, at each feeding, consume only that which 

 within another fortnight would perish of itself. No accumulation of food 

 is acquired by sparing it, nor is the power of producing a full grain crop 



