BAR • 



ever, that it is improper to fow clover among barley on 

 rich land, btcaufe the natural fertility of the foil hi'tens on 

 the vtgetation of the grafs, which will before harvell have 

 advanced to a confiderable height among the corn, and will 

 occafion a longer time to be neceffary for drying the fwath ; 

 and thus, by lying abroad longer than would otherwife have 

 been required, a total dclliuftion of the crop may enfue ; but 

 in thofe lands, where there is not thedang<r of fo luxuriant 

 an increafe, clover, trefoil, and other grafs-fecds may, he 

 thinks, often be fown among barley ; and if a favourable time 

 can be procured for harvclling it, the ilraw may be greatly 

 improved by the mixture of the clover or other graffes, and 

 become then a valuable fodder in the winter ; but barley- 

 ilraw amply is, he fays, the moil ordinary cattle-food of any. 



Where barley fucceeds turnips, the land is fometimes 

 only once plouglied ; but the author of modern agriculture 

 fays that it is a much better method to plough it twice, tirll 

 early in the fpring, and again before fowing the feed. This 

 laft is the pradlice in Norfolk, where that fpecies of grain 

 is cultivated in a more pcrfcft manner and to a greater ex- 

 tent after turnips, than perhaps in any other dillridl. But 

 when barley is fown after peafe, beans, or oats, the land is 

 commonly firll ploughed in autumn ; and the attentive far- 

 mer always takes care on this occafion to plough in fuch a 

 manner as to expofe as great an extent of furface to the in- 

 fluence of the air and froll as poffible, and at the fame time 

 to form the ridges in fuch a way as to prevent the field from 

 receiving any damage from exceffive rains during winter. 

 The fecond ploughing is given immediately after the oat- 

 feeding is finiflied. This ploughing is intended to anfwer 

 two purpofes ; in the firft place, to loofen the couch-grafs 

 and other root-weeds where they abound, fo that they may 

 be eafdy taken out by the harrows, which are immediately 

 afterwards applied ; and in the fecond place, to reduce the 

 foil to a finer tiltli, whereby the feed-weeds are encouraged 

 to vegetate, and which the fubfequent ploughing and har- 

 rowing at feed-time eff'eftually deftroy. 



This fort of grain is alfo frequently fown after wheat, 

 ■when the fame mode of culture as juft mentioned is adopted. 

 But however common this rotation of cropping may be in 

 fome dillrifts, there is no good reafon, he fays, why it 

 fliould be recommended to the general notice of farmers. 

 For two white corn crops fucceeding each other is undoubt- 

 edly an erroneous method, both for profit and improvement. 

 Befides, it mollly happens, that where barley fucceeds 

 wheat, the crop is in fome meafure blighted, many of the 

 ftalks becoming white about the month of July ; and where 

 there are any grains in the ears, they are ihrivelled and 

 never come to maturity, though the foil may be well fuited 

 to the production of this fort of grain. 



The author of the Survey of MidJlefcx indeed thinks, 

 from the nature of corn crops, that barley ought not on any 

 account to be fown after either wheat, rye, or oats ; a 

 much better practice being to fow it after turnips, potatoes, 

 carrots, tares, &c. and in fome cafes, after hemp, flax, and 

 rape. The land (liould not receive any further manure than 

 what was laid on for the preceding crop, together with the 

 dung and urine depofited by cattle during the time they are 

 eating the green crops off the lands. 



The feed feafon for barley begins, in mod of the fouth- 

 ern counties, about the firll week of March, and terminates 

 in the more northern ones, towards the middle of June. 

 But from the middle of March to the end of April may be 

 reckoned the chief barley feed feafon, as within thefe 

 periods by much the greate'll proportion of that fpecies of 

 grain is put into the ground. 



BAR 



The writer jnft mentioned obferves, that barley, though 

 ufually fown during the months of March, April, and 

 May, has fucceeucd when put in the firll week in June ; 

 but it ought to be fown as early as the foil is fufficiently 

 dry and in condition to receive it, and the prior at- 

 tention which is due to the oat, tare, and other crops will 

 permit. Let it always be kept in mind, fays he, that bar- 

 ley will bear late fowing much better than thofe crops. 

 Both the four and fix-rowed kinds of barley are frequently 

 fown in the autumn nearly at the fame tmie with wheat, 

 not only in temperate climates, but alfo in very cold coun- 

 tries ; their hardincfs being fuch as to bear the fevcrity of 

 the winter feafon even in the mountainous parts of the 

 northern countries. In hot countries they are mollly (own 

 in January, February, and March. 



AH the other forts are fown in the fpring of the year in 

 a dry time, as has been already feen ; when tiiis fort of 

 grain is fown late on llrong clayey foils, if the feafon does 

 not prove very favourable, it is very late in autumn before 

 it is fit to reap or mow, unlefs it be the early or rath-ripe 

 fort, which is often ripe in nine weeks from the time of fow- 

 ing. 



In the feventh volume of the Annals of Agriculture, 

 Mr. Young gives the following experiments by Mr. Macro, 

 on early and late fowing of barley; on Nov. 16, lySj, 

 he began his experiments by fowing two bufliels of barley, 

 which he harrowed in on clover land that had been folded 

 the fame as for wheat ; this firft fowing, therefore, had only 

 one earth. The barley came up about a week fooner than 

 the wheat by the fide of it, which was fown the fame day, 

 and was exceedingly flourilhing till the firll Iharp froft fet 

 in, which damaged the blade, but did not feem to aftcft the 

 root. As near the middle of December as the weather 

 would permit, he fowed two bufhels more, on exaftly the 

 fame quantity of ground, and fome about the middle of every 

 month, till the month of May 1786. This and every fow- 

 ing after, it had two earths ; one call, or half the feed, was 

 ploughed in, and the other half harrowed in ; all the land 

 was folded alike in the month of November. The fecond 

 fharp froft killed fome of this fowing, and a good deal of 

 that fown in November ; but they both, with that fown in 

 January, feemed to fuffer ftill more by the fharp cutting 

 winds in the month ol March, when there was no fiiow to 

 cover the blade, and it was injured by the froft. The fow- 

 ings in February and March loft few, if any, of their plants, 

 and, what was fome\vhat remarkable, were both forward 

 enough to be harvefted on the fame day with the three 

 preceding fowings. That fown in April was full a fort- 

 night later ; and that fown in May, there not being any fo 

 late fown in the neighbourhood, was entirely deftroyed by 

 vermin. 



As he fome years before intended ti7ing the fame experi- 

 ment, but was difappointed of knowing the event by th.; 

 ftupidity of his workmen, he determined this time to prevent 

 any miilakes by mixing the different parcels in the barn, to 

 threfli enough of the different fowings in the field to fatisfy 

 himfelf which was the moll profitable crop, and accordingly 

 attended the threftier the whole day himfelf. As it was not 

 at all neceffary for the experiment to threfti the whole crop, 

 he took three fwaths of each fowing twelve yards in length, 

 on the loweft part of the land, where he thought tlie foil 

 was the moft equal for the purpofe of the experiment, which, 

 he Ihould have obferved before, were by the fide of each 

 other on the fame piece of land. He had every parcel 

 dreffed and put into a fack by itfelf as foon as thrc/hed, and 

 the account ftood thus : 



From 



