152 
of the feed undoubtedly rotted in the earth, 
This you will fay, affords no very promi- 
fing prognoltic of the wheat crop. Cer- 
tainly: but fo forward was the fpring, 
and fo remarkably feafonable has been the 
weather fince, that although theheavy lands 
are perhaps fomewhat {cantily fuppiiedwith 
plants of wheat, whofe plan's have thrown 
out a great numbers of ears, and at this 
time have the deep hue and bloom of 
health. The light-land farmers have 
rarely enjoyed fuch a feafon for fummer 
corns as the prefent: on thofe arid thirfty 
foils where I have often feen a fickly 
burnt-up vegetation fcarcely cover the 
ground, the barley, oats, and peas look 
well. During the feed time, we had al- 
moft every day foft vernal fhowers, which 
promoted a germination unufually rapid, 
and the crops foon bad defiance to any or- 
dinary drought, ; 
Your correfpondent, the Welch farmer, 
fpeaks with a little contempt of the prac- 
tice which prevails in his neighbourhood 
of ploughing da¢ once for fummer corn: 
this practice, though certainly not general 
in the county of Norfolk, is yet byno means 
uncommon. My crop of barley was never 
more abundant than it was lait year from 
a fingie ploughing: I have now between 
forty and fitty acres, waich have the ap- 
pearance of being very produciive at the 
enfuing harveft, not one acre of which has 
been pioughed twice. This practice cer- 
tainly faves expence, faves time, and is 
very fimple: I do not, however, mean to 
recommend it, merely becaufe I adopt it 
myfelt ; every man muft be guided by 
circumftances ; if his land is foul he muft 
clean it, and frequent ploughing is at once 
the cheapeft and moft effectual method he 
can puriue. If, however, the land be 
thoroughly cleanied by ihe ufual laborious 
preparation for turnips, it cannot be very 
foul for barley or oats, one of which is 
commonly thefucceeding crop; and I fuf- 
pect the neceflity of frequent ploughings 
for fummer corn is generally attributable 
to the flovenly injudicious manner in which 
the /ummer-leys tor turnips have been ma- 
naged. 
I thall take this opportunity of noticing 
a communication by Mr. Kerrich, in your 
Magazine for March laft, onthe fubject of 
difcoloured barley, againtt the ule of which 
tor feed he {poke in a very decifive, and, I 
fhail add, in a very rafh manner. Mr, 
Kerrich flates, that, ** out of a coomb of 
diicoloured barley, more than two bufliels 
will not in moft inftances work on the 
malting floor ;” and he is of opinion, that 
they cannot be relied upon for feed, ** as 
Agricultural Obfervations. 
[Sept. 1, 
they do not vegetate better in the ground 
than they do upon the floor.”” Immediately 
on reading this friendly admonition, I de- 
termined to try the vegetative powers of 
barley in different tints of difcoloration, 
and found, as I expected, notwithftanding 
the peremptory tone of your correfpondent, 
that the mere circumftance of difcoloration 
had nothing to do with the procefs of ger- 
mination when the feed is committed to 
the ground, If the corculum, the fpeck 
of vitality, is not injured, the feed, I be- 
lieve, will invariably germinate; the co- 
tyledons are merely organs of nutrition, 
which convey the oily farinaceous matter, 
of which they are compofed, to the infant 
plant; if the nutritious fubftance is libe- 
raily communicated, whica we fuppofe ta 
be the cafe when the coty!edons are large 
and plump and firm, the plant, it is obvi- 
ous, will thrive better, and more rapidly, 
than when the cotyledons, fhrunk and fhri- 
velled, diftribute a parfimonious mucilage. 
Still; however, the deficiency of natural 
nourifhment in this latter cafe may, I am 
perfuaded, be in a great meafure fupplied 
by imparting an additional fecundity to 
the foil: I {ele&ted from a heap of barley, 
which lay in my barn, twenty kernels, the 
moft thin and meagre which FE could find ; 
this was during the fevereft part of lat 
winter: I planted them in fome very rich 
mould, and kept the pot in my ftudy, 
where every one of them germinated, tar- 
dily indeed at fir(t, but the radical fibres 
foon fpread, and the plants grew luxuri- 
antly. In my garden I afterwards plant- 
ed jome of the dlackeff barley I could find, 
a large proportion of which grew, acd 
was heal‘hy: the coreulum of fome few 
kernels had been injured, probably rotted 
by exceflive rains, and thofe kernels made 
no effort to germinate. 
Mr. Kerrich afferts, without ‘* expe- 
rience,’ or (ufficicnt ‘* evidence of facts,”” 
that barley does not vegetate better in the 
ground than it does upon the floor : incre- 
duious of the truth of this affertion, I 
picked from the Moor of a neighbouring 
maltter fixty kernels of barley, which, after 
having been in the heap (as I was aflured 
by him) for nineteen days, had refuled to 
malt. He told me, and I dare fay truly, 
that thofe Kernels would certainly not ve- 
getate however long they remained on his 
floor. I planted them in my garden ; and, 
out of fixty, forty-five grew as rapidly and 
vigoroufly as 1 ever-faw barley in my 
life. In fhort, it is evident that warmth 
and muifture, however effential to germi- 
nation, are not of themfelves fufiicient to 
induce it; is it not probable that the cor- 
‘culum 
