■280 H O R D E U M. 
the roots will mat and form a very clofe fward. It is 
however a late grafs, and is thought not to be fo pro¬ 
ductive as fome others. For ray-grafs, which is fometimes, 
but erroneoufly, called rye-grafs, and is very different from 
this, fee Loliu.m percnne. 
8 . Hordeum maritimum, or marfn'barley-grafs: flowers 
awned, the lateral ones male; involucels rugged, the in¬ 
terior ones of the males femi-lanceolate. At firit fight 
this refembles the common wall barley-grafs, infomuch 
that it might be doubted, until experiments are made by 
culture, whether it be a diftincl fpecies; becaufe fait-water 
and fea-air make grafles put on a different appearance. It 
differs, however, in having fhorter pyramidal fpikes, made 
up of a greater number of florets, more crowded together, 
with the awns more Handing out, thofe at the bottom 
longeft, and becoming gradually fhorter towards the top 
of the fpike. The involucres are roughifh, neither ciliate 
nor fcored. Florets fmooth, the middle one in each fet 
fefiile, the lateral ones on very fhort pedicels at the bale 
of their involucre, and their awns fomewhat longer than 
the floret. Native of Barbary, and the fouthern parts of 
Europe ; and of England, in fait marflies near the lea ; 
flowering in June and July. Annua}. 
9. Hordeum jubatum, or long-bearded barley-grafs^ awns 
and involucres briftle-fhaped, and very long. This has 
the habit of H. murinum, but the involucres and briftle- 
fhaped awns are four times the length of the whole fpike, 
which gives this grafs a Angular appearance. Linnaeus, 
in the Species Plantarum, afligns Canada for the native 
place or this grafs, and Kalm for the difcoverer. In the 
thirteenth and fourteenth editions of the Syftema Vegeta- 
bilrum, it is laid to be a native of Smyrna; and Scheuchzer 
fays, that it was fent from Smyrna by Sherard. in the 
Catalogue of the Royal Garden at Kew, it is affigned to 
Canada and Hudlon’s Bay ; and is laid to have been in¬ 
troduced, in 1782, by the Hudfon’s Bay company. In 
the latter woik it is marked as biennial. It is lu.ely-'im¬ 
probable that of grafles fo nearly allied as thefe, fome 
fhould be annual, others biennial, others perennial. 
Propagation and Culture-. All the. forts of barley are fown 
in the fpring of the year, in a dry time ; in lome very dry 
light land, barley is fown early in March ; but, in ftrong 
clayey foils, it is not fown till April, and fometimes not 
until the beginning of May; but, when it is fown late, if 
the feafbn does not prove very favourable, it is late in au¬ 
tumn before it is fit to-mow, unlefs it be the rath-ripe fort, 
which is often ripe in nine weeks from the time of lowing. 
Some low barley upon land where wheat grew the former 
year ; but, when this is praftifed, the ground fhould be 
ploughed the beginning of Oftober, in a dry time, laying 
it in fmall ridges, that the froft may mellow it the better, 
and this will improve the land greatly; and, if this can 
be ploughed again in January, or the beginning of Fe¬ 
bruary, it will break and prepare the ground better; then 
in March the ground is ploughed again, and laid even 
where it is not very wet; but, in ftrong wet lands, the 
ground fhould be laid round, and the furrows made deep 
to receive the wet. When this is finifhed, the common 
method is to fow the barley-leed with a broad-caft at two 
fowings; the nrft being harrowed in once, the fecond is 
harrowed until the feed is buried ; the common allowance 
of feed is four bufhels to an acre. This is the quantity 
of orain ufually lown by the farmers; but, Mr. Philip 
Miller obferves, “ It they could be prevailed on to alter 
this practice, they would loon find their account in it; for, 
if lefs than half that quantity were fown, there would be a 
much greater produce,- and the corn be lefs liable to lodge, 
as I have many years experienced ; for, when corn or any 
other vegetable Hands very clofe, the ftalks, being drawn 
up weak-, are incapable to refift the force of winds, or bear 
up under heavy rains ; but, when they are at a proper dis¬ 
tance, their ftalks will .be more than twice the fize of the 
other, and are feldom laid. It has been frequently ob- 
lerved in fields where there has been a foot-path through 
the middle, that the corn which lias flood thin on each 
fide the path has flood upright, when all the reft on both 
fides has been laid flat on the ground; and whoever will 
obferve thefe roots of corn near the paths, will find them 
tiller out (i. e. have a greater number of ftalks) to more 
than four times the quantity of the other parts of the field. 
Experiments have been made by fowing barley in rows 
acrofs divers parts of the fame field, and the grains fowed 
thin in the rows, fo that the roots were three or four 
inches afunder in the rows, and the rows at a foot diftance; 
the intermediate fpaces of the fame field were at the fame 
time fown broad-caft in the ulual way. The fuccefs was 
this: the roots which flood thin in the rows tillered out 
from ten or twelve to upward of thirty ftalks on each 
root, the ftalks were ftronger, the ears longer, and the 
grains larger than any of thofe fown in the common way; 
and, when thofe parts of the field where the corn was fown 
in the ufual way have been lodged, thefe parts fown thin 
have fupported their upright pofition againft wind and 
rain, though the rows have been made not only- length¬ 
ways, but acrofs the lands, in feveral pofitions, fo that 
there could be no alteration in regard to the goodnefs of 
the land, or the fituation of the corn. Therefore, where 
fuch experiments have been frequently made, and always 
attended with equal fuccefs, there can be no room to 
doubt which of the two methods is more eligible; fince, 
if the crops were only fuppofed to be equal in both, the 
laving more than half the corn fown is a very great ad¬ 
vantage, and deferves a national confideration, as fuch a 
laving, in fcarce times, might be a very great benefit to 
the public. 
“ Farmers in general are very apt to complain if their 
corn does not come up fo thick as to cover their ground 
green in a fhort time, like grafs-fields: but, when from 
the badnefs of the leafon it has come up thin, or by acci¬ 
dent has been in part killed, their corn has been ftronger, 
the ears longer, and the grain plumper, fo that the pro¬ 
duce has been much greater than in thole years when it 
has come up thick ; for the natural growth of corn is to 
fend out many ftalks from a root, and not rife fo much in 
height; therefore it is entirely owing to the roots (landing 
too near each other, when the ftalks are drawn up tall and 
weak. I have had eighty-fix ftalks upon one root of bar¬ 
ley, which were ftrong, produced longer ears, and the 
grain was better filled, than any which I ever faw grow in 
the common method of liufbandry, and the land upon 
which this grew was not very rich ; but I have frequently 
obferved on the fides of liot-beds in the kitchen-gardens, 
where barley-ftraw has been tiled for covering the beds, 
that fome of the grains left in the ears' having dropped 
out and grown, the roots have produced from thirty to- 
fixty ftalks each, and thofe three or four times larger than 
the (talks ever arrive at in the common way : but to this 
I know it will be objected, that although upon rich land 
in a garden, thefe roots of corn may probably have fo 
many ftalks, yet in poor land they will not have fuch pro¬ 
duce; therefore, unlefs there is a greater quantity of feed 
l’own, their crop will not be worth (landing; which is one 
of the greateft fallacies that can be imagined ; for to lup- 
pofe that poor land can nourifh more than twice the num¬ 
ber of roots in the fame fpace as rich land, is fuch an ab- 
lurdity, as one could hardly fuppofe any perfon of com¬ 
mon underftanding guilty of; and yet fo it is, for the 
genera! practice is to allow a greater quantity of feed to 
poor land than for richer ground; not confidering that, 
where the roots ftand fo clofe, they will deprive each other 
of the nourifhment, and itarve themfelves, which is always 
the'cafe where the roots ftand clofe; and this a perfon 
may at firll fight obferv.e, in any part of the fields where 
the corn happens to fcatter when they are fowing it; or 
in places where, by harrowing, the feed is drawn in heaps, 
thole patches will itarve, and never grow to a third part 
of the fize as the other parts of the fame field; and yet* 
common as this is, it is little noticed by farmers; other- 
wife they furely would not continue their old cuftom of 
lowing. I have made many experiments for feveral years 
ift 
