138 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
{ August 15, 1878. 
(J. W. Collate) —1, Veronica 
We do not name plants from leaves only. 
(Arthur Miles) — 
Hendersoni ; 2, Enonymus japonicus fol. aur. variegatis. 
Lathyrus sylvestris. 
THE HOME FARM: 
POULTRY, PIGEON, AND BEE CHRONICLE. 
HARVESTING OF BARLEY. 
WE have made the harvesting of wheat, oats, and barley the 
subject for separate articles, as there are certain circumstances 
in connection with the securing of each of these crops which 
differ in some material points. Although each of them stands 
in an important position connected with the profitable manage- 
ment of the home farm, yet they have a different value, not only 
for use as grain produce, but also for straw and fodder purposes. 
In the harvesting of winter barley, which is a strong and robust 
Kind of grain with a short thickset ear, and coming ripe as it 
does yery early and before the wheat crop, it does not require 
different management in harvesting from the wheat crop, and 
there is usualiy but little difficulty in securing a favourable 
harvest for it, especially as the grain is only required for 
mealing purposes or to sow in admixture with fodder crops 
like vetches. The straw, also, is not generally used for fodder, 
it being long and strong, and is best adapted for all the pur- 
poses to which wheat straw is applied, including thatching, for 
which purpose it is very wiry and durable when harvested with 
care and thrashed by one of Clayton & Shutileworth’s machines, 
which deliver the straw from the machine as straight and un- 
injured as reeds. The usual sorts of barley used as a spring- 
sown crop for the best purposes may be said to consist only of 
two distinctive varieties, or rather haying two separate objects | 
in view, which refer to soil as well as the purposes to which 
the grain is applied. 
The strong coarse-growing barlers, such as the Red-bearded 
American and the Long-eared Nottingham, both of which are 
well adapted for high cultivation and deep alluvial soils, may 
be usually harvested with less trouble and care than the Golden 
Melon and Chevalier varieties. The two former kinds being long 
and stiff in the straw may be the more easily tied into sheaves 
after being cut with the reaping machine; bui the two latter 
sorts, which give the best samples of malting grain grown in 
the kingdom, are chiefly grown upon the light and kind soils, 
are short and soft in the straw, and the more easily become laid 
and twisted abont, making it difficult to cut by the reaper and 
more difficult still to tie into sheaves. It is, however, desirable 
for all sorts of barley to be tied into sheaves and set up in stooks 
if clean and straight-grown, more especially in a showery season ; 
because when cut and left on the ground when there is clover 
amongst the crop, it being then all exposed to alternate rain and 
sunshine, it inevitably becomes stained and discoloured : whereas 
when once it is cut and tied in the dry and properly shocked, 
taking care to set the sheaves well out at the bottom and the 
tops carefully settled in together, it will endurea great succession 
and long continuance of adverse weather without serious injury, 
Only the outside of the sheaves is then exposed, and consequently 
only a portion of the grain will be stained; it may, therefore, be 
ultimately secured as a malting sample. The only objection we 
have ever found to tying barley and setting it up in shock is 
that it kills the clover. Now in the case of an oat crop with 
clover the shocks of oats may be moved every few days if the 
weather is bad without serious injury to the grain, and thus 
relieve the clover seedlings. Not so with barley, because in a 
showery season its removal would be fatal to the sample as 
malting grain ; on the other hand, if it remains in shock without 
removal until carted to rick it kills the young clover plants 
under the shocks. It thus becomes a question of cropping— 
whether it is desirable to sow clover in barley as a rule. We 
think not, and that the barley intended to furnish malting grain 
should be sown without clover seeds with it. We have another 
strong objection to clover in barley, because we think the growth 
of the two crops together interferes with the plumpness of the 
grain, and that in the mixed soils of the country the barley 
would produce a much better malting quality in the absence of 
the clover seeds. We have no doubt that this opinion is shared 
by the majority of the practical farmers; but, unfortunately, the 
conditions of farming as drawn in the leases upon various estates 
compel the tenant to sow clover and grass seeds in the Lent 
corn. We also find that on many estates in the hands of practicat 
land agents that such matters are gaining more attention, being 
altered by giving more liberty of action to the tenant as to the 
mode of cropping, not only in this but in various other importan$ 
Tespects. 
The state in which the barley crop is found at the commence- 
ment of harvest is very much afiected by the previous crop. For 
instance, when barley is grown after roots fed off by sheep the 
crop will be generally very uneven, for where the stock feed the 
roots upon the land in wet weather the barley crop is sure to 
suffer and grow with great irregularity. The crop will be found 
to be best in bulk and sample where the roots had been fed in dry ~ 
and favourable weather, and, unfortunately, the best and worst 
parts of the produce cannot often be harvested separately. In 
those cases where a line can be drawn so as to cut and tie the 
best portion of the crop and cart it to rick or barn separately, it 
is advisable to do so, as sometimes the best malting barley would 
fetch as much as 15s. per quarter more than that only fit for 
mealing purposes. : 
The time of cutting barley is of far more consequence than 
other grain, for whereas wheat and oats are benefited by early 
cutting, on the other hand barley should (if malting grain is 
required) never be cut until both straw and corn are dead ripe. 
This is usually indicated by the ears hanging down, and the grain 
being not only hard but the skin shrivelled on the back of the 
grain. Ifitis cut early the grain becomes steely and only adapted 
for grinding purposes. The question of straw of barley is only a2. 
secondary maiter, as we value it but little tor feeding purposes 
unless it is short in growth with a quantity of clover in it, well 
secured without rain, as we prefer wheat or oat straw for chaff- 
cutting for horses and cattle. The use of the reaping machine 
with seli-binder is of less use for barley than for other grain, as 
it seldom is delivered straight enough to tie in good-shaped 
sheaves ; it is more likely to be in unsightly bundles. Nor can 
we recommend the wire-tying for barley, as the wire interferes 
sadly with the feeding value of the straw. Much of the barley 
is this year very much laid and twisted, so that 1t cannot be cut 
with the scythe without cutting off too many ears. We, there- 
fore, in some cases must resort to the fagging hook as the best 
way of saying the most corn and having the grips in the best 
order for tying. Many persons object to the tying of barley 
because of the extra expense, but it is only in the payment for 
cutting and tying, all the work afterwards being done not only 
at less cost but with much greater celerity. The loading and 
carting to rick takes less time; the rick is better and quicker 
made, particularly if made round ; after the rick is made it takes 
less thatch, does not require to be whipped outside, the butts of 
the sheaves only require to be shaved close. Again, when it is 
thrashed it is much less work to haul to the machine than loose 
corn, and much more quickly thrashed and disposed of. The 
question of usage of waggons or carts is still a disputed point 
amongst the farmers; they say waggons are best on hillsides- 
They probably are better than the carts with head and tail 
ladders ; but in our opinion nothing is so good in carting corn of 
any sort as the low-set harvest frames or skeleton carts, as they 
are easier to load and ucload, and not so likely for the loads to 
fall off going to and fro. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour will consist principally of carting the crops of 
pulse, grain, and second-cutting clover to stack ; there will be, of 
course, short intervals of tillage, such as preparing the land for 
stubble turnips, mustard, or rape, as may be required, according to 
soil and the rotation of management. We will, however, take this 
