THE PRINCIPLES OP BOTANY. 
911 
the ears longer, and the grain heavier and better than the 
rest of the field sown with double the quantity of seed. There 
is, however, a limit to this reduction of seed, and it should 
be accompanied with good cultivation, and earliness, and 
cleanliness in all our work. In practice we intend to use in 
future six pecks as the best proportion for seeding on a farm 
where we are informed as much as twenty pecks had been 
formerly employed. 
Uses of Barley . — As has already been hinted at, barley is 
largely employed for brewing purposes, including distillation, 
as also for feeding principally of cattle and pigs. In studying 
this, however, we must speak of the grain and straw 
separately. 
We have before stated that oats form the principal corn 
food for horses, and this practice has prevailed for the simple 
reason that in no grain are the muscle-making and fat-pro- 
ducing elements so largely combined as in oats. Professor 
Playfair says : — 
“ 1st. That the quantity of starch in the oat is nearest to 
that of barley. 
“ 2nd. That the oat is very rich in oil or fatty matter. 
“ The fattening matter of oats must be very great. With 
the exception of Indian corn, in which Boussingault found, 
on an average, seven per cent., and Dumas nine per cent, of 
oil or fatty matter, none of the other starchy feeding materials 
contain so much fat. 
“ 3rd. That the proportion of flesh-forming matters in good 
oats is larger than in wheat, barley, Indian corn, rye, or 
buckwheat. For the production of muscle, oats, even includ- 
ing the husk, must therefore be considered as superior to 
almost any other corn.”* 
In order to show these points the more clearly we now 
quote proximate analyses of barley and oats, the former by 
Professor Playfair, the second by Professor Voelcker, arranged 
from an average of numerous analyses, both quoted from 
Morton's ' Cyclopaedia of Agriculture.' 
* These conclusions, though quoted in our last, are here reproduced in 
order to make our argument the more clear. 
