BARLEY. 27 
puddings, or served up in a dish with grated cheese, 
milk, and other ingredients. 
Vermicelli is made by a mixture of flour, cheese, the 
yolks of eggs, sugar and saffron. This, being reduced 
to a proper consistency, is formed into long slender 
pieces or threads, like worms, by being forced, with a 
piston, through a number of little holes, in the end of a 
pipe made for the purpose. Vermicelli was first brought 
from Italy, and it is chiefly used in soups and other 
culinary preparations. 
SO. BARLEY is a well known kind of corn (Hordeum 
distichon, Fig. 15.) which grows ivild in the island of Sicily, 
and some other parts of the south of Europe. 
Next to wheat, this is, in Europe, the most valuable 
of all the species of grain, especially for growth on 
light and sharp soils. The seed-time for barley usually 
commences about the end of March or the beginning of 
April, and sometimes lasts until the first week in June ; 
and, for the produce, four quarters per acre are con- 
sidered a fair average crop, and eight quarters a very 
extraordinary one. 
Few instances of fecundity in corn are more remark- 
able than what has been related of two grains of SIX- 
ROWED BARLEY (Hordeum hexaslichon) which were 
planted in a garden: they produced 113 stalks, nearly 
all of which yielded ears ; and these contained, in the 
whole, more than 2,500 grains. 
The principal use to which barley is applied in this 
country is for the making of malt, from which beer and 
ale are brewed. For this purpose it is first steeped in 
water for three or four days. It is then taken out, and 
suffered to lie, until it begins to sprout or germinate. As 
soon as the germination has approached a certain state 
its further progress is prevented by drying the barley in 
a kiln, heated with coke, charcoal, or straw. The grain, 
has now become mellow and sweet ; and, after having 
been crushed in a kind of mill contrived for the purpose, 
its saccharine qualities are easily extracted by the boil- 
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