THE GRAMINEjE. 



216 



Spring Barley, 



the common, and the otlier the 

 rath-ripe barley. These, in 

 fact, are the same plant, the 

 latter being a variety occasioned 

 by long culture upon wann 

 gravelly soils. If seeds of this 

 kind are sown in cold or strong 

 land, the plants will ripen 

 nearly a fortnight earlier than 

 seeds taken from other strong 

 land ; but this holds good only 

 dm-ing the firet year. This 

 variety is said in extraordinary 

 seasons to have been returned 

 to the barn within two months 

 in this country. Siberian bar- 

 ley, another variety, was 

 brought into culture in the 

 year 1768, by Mr Haliday, who 

 received a very small portion 

 out of about a pint of seed which had been pre- 

 sented by a foreign nobleman to the London 

 Society for the Encouragement of Arts. This 

 variety exhibits, on first coming up, a broader 

 blade, and is of a deeper green than common bar- 

 ley. The ears are shorter, containing only from 

 five to nine grains in length, while the com- 

 mon sort has from nine to thirteen grains. Si- 

 berian barley arrives at maturity about a fort- 

 night earlier than other kinds. 



Winteh or Squake "i. 



Barley, called also Bear, 

 or Bigg — Hordeum hexas- 

 tichon — is the second spe- 

 cies, (;3). This is rarely 

 cultivated in the south- 

 em parts of England ; 

 but in the northern coun- 

 ties and in Scotland is 

 very genei'ally sown, 

 beinga raiuchmore hardy 

 plant than spring barley. 

 The grains are large and 

 plump, and the spike is 

 thicker and shorter than 

 the last-described spe- 

 cies, being seldom longer 

 than two inches, and 

 square. Maltsters iq the 

 southern division of the 

 kingdom are of opinion that this barley does 

 not answer their purpose so well as that more 

 usually cultivated among them, while in Soot- 

 land this idea is considered to be an unfounded 

 prejudice. 



The number of grains in each ear is greater 

 than are found on spring barley in the propor- 

 tion of three to two, one ear frequently yielding 

 forty or more grains. These are disposed in six 

 rows, two of these being on each of two sides, 

 and one row on each of the other sides. 



Winter or Square Barley. 



LoNG-BARED BaRIKV, 



sometimes called Two- 

 rowed Barley — Hordeum 

 distichon — ispartially culti- 

 vated in every part of Eng- 

 land, and is a very good sort. 

 Some persons object to it, 

 that the ears being long and 

 heavy, it is more apt to lodge 

 than other kinds. The 

 grains are regularly dis- 

 posed in a double row, 

 lying over each other like 

 tiles on a roof, or like the 

 scales of fishes. The ear is 

 somewhat flatted, being 

 transversely greater in 

 breadth than in thickness. 



The husk of the grain is 

 Long.Eared Barley. ^j^.^^ ^^^ j^^ ^^j^j^g ^^^. 



lities are excellent. 



Sprat or Battledore Barley — Hordeum 

 zeocriton — ^has shorter and broader ears than 

 either of the sorts already described ; its awns or 

 beards are longer, so that birds cannot so easily 

 get out the grains, which also lie closer together 

 than those of other kinds. Sprat barley seldom, if 

 ever, grows so tall as either of the other species, 

 and its straw is not only shorter, but coarser, so 

 as to render it not desirable for use as fodder. 



It was formerly the universal practice in this 

 country to sow barley in the spring. The end 

 of March or beginning of April was the more 

 usual time, but the sowing was sometimes de- 

 ferred to the beginning of May. The practice in 

 this respect has somewhat varied of late, and a 

 more early season has been chosen for sowing, so 

 that it is not uncommon for the process to be 

 performed in January, under the idea that the 

 produce in such cases is greater. In the county 

 of Norfolk, where the cultivation of barley is 

 carried forward very extensively, and with the 

 greatest skill, the farmers were formerly guided 

 in their choice of seed time by a maxim which 

 had long been handed down to them from father 

 to son : — • 



" When the oak puts on his gosling gray, 

 'Tis time to sow barley night and day ;" 



meaning, that when the oak exhibits the gray 

 appearance which accompanies the bursting of 

 its buds, a few days preceding the expansion of 

 the leaves, it is then improper to lose any time 

 in getting their seed-barley into the ground. Tha 

 budding and leafing of the birch trees is, in Swe- 

 den, considered an indication of the proper time 

 for barley-sowing. In difi^erent countries there 

 are, of course, different natural guides in the 

 operations of husbandry ; but an intelligent and 

 observing farmer, in every country, will, not fail 

 to regard those which have been sanctioned by 



