JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Oc'ober 6, 1887. 
SO 3 
as it is at the present time —in fact, it can be got at the chief ports at 
<id. per stone or £4 per ton, which is below the price of hay, undecorti¬ 
cated cotton cakes and bran ; in fact, feeding Barley is at present more 
than 1J—1J penny per stone, or £1 per ton cheaper than Maize, and is 
not very much higher in price than straw is in some parts of the country. 
No doubt this unprecedented cheapness of feeding Barley will cause it 
•to be used largely, in its unconverted state, either unground or ground 
into meal, along with Turnips and other food, but I prefer it when con¬ 
verted into green malt, and for the benefit of those farmers who are 
inclined to follow my example in this respect I may say that the pro¬ 
cess of conversion is as follows :— 
The Barley must first be steeped overhead in water (allowing it room 
to swell) about foity-eight hours, and this can be done in any tank or 
large tub or casks which may be available (the latter can also be bought 
of any cooper for a few shillings each), into which a large plug-hole 
should be made at the side, as near the bottom as possible, and over the 
inside of the plug-hole should be fixed some perforated zinc (which can 
be got at any ironmongers) so that when the plug is taken out, the 
water may be drained off through the zinc and plug-hole, and the Barley 
left behind. It is a good plan to let the perforated zinc enclose a larger 
spa e than is occupied by the plug-hole, so as to let the water drain to 
dt more quickly. When the Barley has been steeped forty-eight hours 
smd the water drawn off, place it thickly upon a floor, say 2 feet thick, 
.and let it remain there until some warmth is developed ; it must then 
be thinned down to say 6 inches, and must be daily turned over until it 
•strikes out its roots ; as soon as these have grown a little and show signs 
-of withering, the Barley should be sprinkled with a watering-can and 
the turning continued until the acrospire—or what would be the stalk 
if the Barley were planted—has forced its wav well up the back of the 
Barley under the skin; when this is accomplished, the Barley has been 
(Converted into green malt, and is at the stage of manufacture which is 
of most value to the farmer for feed in tr purposes. The whole operation 
from first wetting till ready for use will occupy from ten to twelve da r s. 
As regards the floor for growing Barley upon, a concrete one is the best, 
but either brick or wood will do, only in the latter case more moisture 
will have to be added whilst the Barley is upon it. A wooden floor may 
also be cheaply covered with galvanised iron sheets, and is then even 
better than a concrete floor. It follows that the quantity steeped or 
wetted every forty-eight hours should be calculated according to what is 
(required for two days’ consumption ; and any farmer who may wish for 
further information respecting the process can no doubt obtain it from 
his nearest neighbouring malster. Mr. W. J. Harris, of High Hampton, 
Devon, has lately contributed a long article to the newspapers, giving 
•calculations showing that the deficiency in this year’s crops of Oats, hay, 
Turnips, and straw, amounts to 14,GOO,000 tons, and this estimate is also 
•concurred in by other authorities. Mr. Harris further calculates that 
this deficiency can be made up by using 12,000,000 qrs. of feeding 
Barley, and it is certainly fortunate for us that this article is at present 
cheaper than all other feeding corn, and that it can be bought at as low 
a price as hay and undecorticated cottonseed cakes. 
In case the rain should now cause a sharp growth of succulent grass 
Ct will be found advantageous to give dry Barley to stock to prevent 
scour.—J. Shaw, Walking ton Towers Farm, Beverley. 
Referring to this subject the agricultural correspondent of a daily 
paper remarks—“That cattle do well on malt—whether ‘green’ or 
dried—there is no doubt, but Mr. Shaw has not the sanction of science 
for its being an economical form in which to use Barley. A certain 
quantity of feeding material is lost in the chemical changes and evapor¬ 
ations which occur during germination, and it has never yet been shown 
■that the malt resulting from a quarter of Barley is sufficiently superior 
in intrinsic feeding properties to raw Barley to atone for the actual loss 
that takes place in conversion. Unless the malt from a quarter of 
Barley has greater fattening or milk-producing powers than is possessed 
by the original quarter of unmalted Barley, the expense of converting 
into malt must be regarded as an economical loss. The experiments of 
■Sir John Lawes and Dr. Gilbert controvert the idea that there is any 
•such gain in nutritive value as to balance the loss in germination and 
the cost of treatment. If malt has any superior value over raw Barley 
;as a food, it is probably a condimentary value, and no doubt an allow¬ 
ance of green malt, mixed with such unpalatable food as chopped straw, 
for instance, might tempt an animal to enjoy rations which he would 
otherwise only tolerate. It is sometimes argued that if a beast is healthy 
•condiments are superfluous and unnatural, but it is often forgotten that 
the whole processes of stall-feeding and fattening an animal for the 
butcher are more or less unnatural, and there are circumstances under 
•which, even for healthy cattle in good condition, condiments have a 
value, and valuable as are its feeding properties, it is as a condiment, 
rather than as a food, that we are inclined to class malt. A small pro¬ 
portion of malt, whether ‘ green’ or kiln-dried, will flavour a good deal 
•of Barley or other food, and it is in this way, rather than as a chief 
constituent of diet, that malt is probably to be most economically used. 
The fact that notwithstanding the abolition of the malt duty, hardly 
•any farmers malt the Barley which they give to stock is in itself a very 
pregnant fact. It was at one time thought that the abolition of the malt 
tax would confer on farmers a great boon by giving them freedom to 
malt grain for their feeding boxes. But experience since shows either 
fihat the boon, if such it is, is very poorly appreciated, or that prac¬ 
tice in this matter endorses the dictum of science. Quite apart, how¬ 
ever, from the malting question, Mr. Shaw is right in calling attention 
to the cheapness and abundance of foreign Barley.” 
TRUE AND FALSE HESSIANS. 
In re the Hessian fly, we are now discovering that we have to deduct 
a per-centage from the reports of its appearance, sundry other flies 
having been mistaken for Cecidomyia destructor, as was likely to happen. 
To take one instance, the supposed new foe turned out to be the ribbon¬ 
footed corn fly or the gout fly, so styled from the effect produced on the 
stem by the attack of the larva or grub. Though this fly occurs on 
various cereals it shows a preference for Barley, and did much mischief, 
chiefly in North England, during the summers of 1841 and 1846. The 
fly, Clilorops tcematus, is small, about an eighth of an inch long, and 
stumpy in form, very distinctly striped with black on the body ; it 
generally lays its eggs on the rudimentary ear while the plant is young. 
Generally the ear is produced, but the grains are few and often mis¬ 
shapen, the plant assuming a dwarfed aspect, having the stem somewhat 
curved and puffy at the joints. On opening up one attacked we perceive 
the long blackish furrow made by the larva, at the bottom of which the 
pupa lies till matured. It is a pest that evidently selects those blades 
growing upon moist land, and seldom occurs upon chalky soils. To 
supply the Barley with abundant nutriment is one of the preventive 
means, hence the application of superphosphate or of the nitrate of 
soda has been advised, salt and caustic lime have also been used. The 
efficacy of these is rather doubtful. Good drainage is important; it is 
stated that sometimes thousands of the flies secrete themselves in stacks 
when the insect has bred in fields near ; so these should be looked after. 
A backward crop is always in peril, and on the earliest signs of the 
presence of this grub infected specimens should be sought out and 
removed. 
It was quite natural that the attack of the corn sawfly should 
in some cases be taken for that of the Hessian insect, as by the operations 
of both species the straw falls, but differently. With the Hessian fly, 
however, the stem bends at about the first or second joint from the soil, 
while from the effects of the corn sawfly the stem breaks off near the 
ground, in fact so near that afterwards the part left in the soil is not 
easy to find. This fly, Cephus pygmreus, occurs every year, probably in 
about the same numbers ; it seems to have been more noticed during 
1887, because the reports relating to the Hessian fly have led to careful 
observation of the corn crops. The larva feeds also upon the stems of 
grasses, but it has never been of serious injury to cereals in this country ; 
on the Continent it appears to be more prolific. This fly is nearly 
double the size of the Hessian insect, and it is four-winged, marked with 
black and yellow, and fond of flying in the sunshine; its emergence 
takes place about May or early in June, when the female insect dis¬ 
tributes her eggs, placing one upon each plant. The maggot is legless, 
pale yellow, with a brown horny head, armed with jaws strong enough 
to enable it to cut through the straw just as it becomes adult. It then 
remains in the pupa state through the winter, hidden within the frag¬ 
ment of the stem that is buried. Hence, though burning the stubble 
after reaping destroys the insect, to do this most effectually it is necessary 
to loosen and raise the soil somewhat, or a part of the pupte will 
escape. 
It is possible that some persons who have failed to read attentively 
the particulars given concerning the habits of the Hessian fly, seeing a 
swarm of midges about the corn on a June evening, may have supposed 
they were the enemy. These tiny flies belong to the species Cecidomyia 
tritici, and their larvte feed upon the young ear, being popularly known 
as “red maggot.”— Entomologist. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lit. 51° 32- 40'N.; L mj, 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
i?j 3- 
Hygrome- 
C3 . 
o tJ.; 
Shade Tem- 
Radiation 
a 
1887. 
c £ 
? £ 
ter. 
71 a 
£=S 
perature. 
Temperature 
93 
« 
Sept.—Oct. 
In 
On 
K2 c3 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Co 
H 
Max. 
Min. 
sun. 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Id. 
Sunday . 
25 
3K317 
48 9 
45.2 
S. 
54.9 
62.5 
38 4 
100.2 
31.6 
_ 
Monday. 
2 > 
29.87L 
55.6 
53.1 
s.w. 
54 6 
59.7 
49.3 
72 9 
44 7 
0.112 
Tuesday ... 
27 
29.496 
51.7 
49.2 
E. 
54 8 
59 8 
47.2 
93.3 
44 6 
P."1S 
Wednesday.. 
28 
29.296 
45.3 
431 
N.W. 
5 4.2 
58.2 
40.6 
102 3 
37.2 
Thursday .... 
29 
29-410 
47-5 
43.9 
N. 
52 8 
59.6 
34-3 
97.8 
314 
0.011 
Friday . 
39 
29.786 
49 2 
46 0 
N. 
51.8 
56 4 
39 l 
92.5 
34 3 
0. 48 
Saturday .... 
1 
30.116 
53.7 
50 2 
U. 
52.1 
60.5 
4 5.4 
103.4 
39.8 
— 
29 752 
50.3 
47.2 
53.6 
59.5 
42.0 
94 6 
37.7 
0.184 
REMARKS. 
25th.—Fine »nd bright, with warm sunshine. 
26th.—Dull, with occasional spots of rain; heavy rain at night. 
27th.—Fine, bright morning; clouded over :n at :e moon; stowjr about 6 r.M.; fne 
evening. 
28th.—Bright; fresh and cool. 
23th.—Fine, bright morning ; cloudy afternoon; shower about 6 P.M. ; bright evening 
and night. 
SOth.—Bright morning; cloudy with spots of rain at noon; showery aiternoon; clear 
fine night. 
October 1st.—Bright early; oloudy with spots of rain from coon to 1 P.M., then again 
fine and generally bright. 
A pleasant autumnal week: vaiiable, but with a goo 1 deal of sunshine. Tempera¬ 
ture about 4° b;low that tf the preceding wetk, and 5° be?o.v the average—"L J 
£ YMONS. 
