Wesi Londoii Gardeners' Association. 313 



]. It contains more flour than any other grain, rice excepted. 2. It 

 weighs more than 60 lb. per bushel. 3. The flour is whiter and sweeter than 

 common barley flour. 4. The flour absorbs more water than other flour, 

 consequently produces more weight of bread. 5. Bread made from any 

 barley flour is better made into thick cakes; and if from a 4th to an 8th of 

 an ounce of carbonate of soda be dissolved in the yeast, it improves all bread, 

 and takes the bitter away. 6. By plain boiling is good food for children. 

 7. The malt made from it increases more than from common barley. 8. The 

 malt will make in seven days less than common barley. 9. It can be made 

 one month earlier and one month later than from common barley. 10. It 

 weighs considerably more than the malt from common barley. 1 1. The beer 

 made from this malt is superior. 12. Three bushels will seed the land as 

 well as four of other barley. 13. Should be sown in March or April. 

 14. It ripens in 80 or 90 days. 15. If sown without grass, can be harvested 

 in two or three days. 16. If sown early will be harvested in time for a good 

 crop of turnips. 17. It requires the same cultivation as other barley. 

 18. The strav/ is superior for fodder. 19. Seldom lodges, and not subject to 

 disease. 20. Each acre of this barley produces about one third more food for 

 human beings or animals. Seeds may be had of Messrs. Gibbs, Charlwood, 

 and other seedsmen. — Charles Aldermann Kenbury. Newbury. 



The Rot in Sheep. — Hydrocotyle vulgaris, Drosera rotundifolia, and Pin- 

 guicula vulgaris have been charged with giving the rot to sheep, and probably 

 other plants. The following idea is perhaps new, but will it not explain 

 some cases of rot which could hardly be attributed to a wet situation, such 

 as where sheep have been upon rotting ground only a very short time ? The 

 eggs of the Fasciola are very minute and innumerable, and may easily be 

 carried with the bile into the intestines, and thence voided with the dung. In 

 wet fields they would be spread about and kept moist, which probably would 

 preserve life, but in dry situations they would soon be killed, or if not killed, 

 they would not be scattered upon the grass to be taken up by the sheep, as 

 they might be in wet places. If they once enter the mouth, they would have 

 no great difficulty in finding their way to the proper spot for their full de- 

 velopement. The Planaria, often said to be picked up by sheep and to be the 

 Fasciola or fluke before it inhabits sheep, is a water animal of quite a 

 different character. — J. D. C. Sowerby, Pratt Street, Camden Town, Jan. 18. 

 1840. 



Art. IV. The West London Gardeners' Association Jbr mutual 

 histruction. 



Monday Evening, March 16. — Mr. Caie brought forward his paper " On 

 the Cidtivation of E?7c«." He began as follows : " It may, with some truth, 

 be asked, what can have induced me to write on the growth of jBrica,a subject 

 which has been treated so fully by men truly eminent for their practical know- 

 ledge. But what more immediately concerns me is the fact of the cultivation 

 of the Eric2i being any thing but well understood at the present time. It is 

 because I am quite sure that no plant merits a greater share of the gardener's 

 care, and, also, because we know of few plants which evince less of it, that I 

 have been induced to bring the subject before this meeting. 



" It must be quite obvious to every gardener that the seed of a plant would 

 remain inert until it rotted and perished, but for the influence of heat and of 

 moisture ; but what distinguishes a practical gardener is the application of these 

 elements in unison with the state of the seeds, as well as their natural locali- 

 ties. The J?rica is principally found at the Cape of Good Hope, which is 

 in latitude 34° 29" south, and its elevation at the Table Mountain above the 

 sea is 3582 ft., which renders it an airy situation. In sowing the seeds of 

 jBrica, the sizes of the pots or pans should be regulated according to the 

 greater or less quantity of seed to be sown. When so arranged, get a portion 



1840. June. v 



