Growth of Barley. 
227 
■every arable farmer will appreciate ; and as a flock-master he 
Avill hardly know what value to put on a healthy run which 
assists him in keeping his ewes out of the turnips, or enables 
him to bring them by degrees to their new diet with a dry run, 
and bite of grass in the morning, and a fold, probably of rape, in 
the afternoon.* 
My o])inion that the barley crop takes less out of the land will 
be disputed bv those who, from a knowledge of the analyses and 
ash of the various crops, think it a safe conclusion that because 
the barley crop, when ripe, contains as much of valuable consti- 
tuents as wheat, it therefore takes up as much from the soil. 
Our best chemists, however, consider that during the whole 
course of their growth, the cereals are parting with nitrogen to a 
considerable amount ; this waste of the most costly constituent 
■will therefore vary with the duration of the plant's growth, that 
as to say, will be greater in autumn-sown wheat than in spring- 
sown barley. Those who build most upon the supplies of am- 
monia to be derived from the air may be expected to look 
favourably on this theory of nitrogenous exhalations from plants. 
Otherwise (until we have better evidence that the nitrogen as 
united with oxygen in the air becomes largely available for 
plants) how can they account for the supply of ammonia and 
nitric acid on which they rely ? 
The opinion then that wheat and barley are equally exhausting 
crops perhaps arises from imperfect chemical knowledge, which 
sometimes misleads agriculturists of the present day, but not 
nearly as often as an indiscriminate application of the abstract 
dogmas of political economy. 
But apart from any scientific speculations, the prospects of the 
Avheat trade are precarious, those of barley steady ; the new com- 
petition from foreign wines being counterbalanced by increased 
skill in brewing, and greater facilities for delivering beer within 
moderate distances : our growth of barley then may safely be 
increased on suitable soils. 
I send this as an old member's contribution to the Journal, to 
indicate the sort of communications which are to be desired from 
such quarters. 
* The fields I refer to cannot grow turnips, and, Tfithout such precautions, rape 
is dangerous for ewes, either before or after lambing, and also for hoggets. A 
run for a few hours in the morning over grass is highly conducive to health, if it 
be given merely for the sake of exercise. 
Q 2 
