perfectly cleaned, and rendered thoroughly por- 
ous, powdery, and mellow, by the tillage of au- 
tumn, the frosts of two winters, and the plough- 
ings, scarifyings, and harrowings of a summer 
and two springs. Though the loss of time and 
the expenditure of labour by such a fallow are 
great, yet they are, in general, well compensated 
by the produce of the subsequent crops. The 
land is completely divested of weeds; the barley 
finds ready access to the nourishment in the soil, 
and obtains that nourishment without competi- 
tion from noxious herbage ; the clover sown along 
‘with the barley obtains ample possession of the 
ground, and contributes the most effective pre- 
paration for wheat; the crop of wheat, if the 
tillage be in keeping with that of the commenc- 
ing fallow, will be luxuriant; a well manured 
and a diligently hoed crop of beans may follow 
the wheat; and a second crop of wheat may be 
interposed between the beans and a repetition of 
the fallow. Any clever, calculating farmer will 
see, almost at a glance, that a rotation like this, 
beginning with barley and including two crops of 
wheat, is likely, even with all the deduction of 
the long fallow, to afford quite as good a remu- 
neration, as a rotation of a different and shorter 
kind, beginning with wheat after the ordinary 
turnip or summer fallow. The long fallow fol- 
lowed by barley, however, must be understood as 
appropriate only upon the kind of soil which we 
have indicated, and as most wastefully unsuited 
to soils of a lighter and more prevalent descrip- 
tion. When, in any case, barley follows an 
ordinary summer fallow, the land is ridged up in 
the same manner as for wheat, is left in that 
condition till spring, and is either thrown into 
seed-furrow, or stirred and pulverized with the 
grubber immediately before sowing. 
Barley is seldom sown after potatoes; for wheat, 
at that stage of a rotation, is, in all ordinary cir- 
cumstances, quite as suitable, and is preferred on 
account of its superior value. But when, in any 
case, barley does succeed potatoes, the land is 
treated in nearly the same manner as when this 
crop succeeds a summer fallow——When barley is 
sown after beans or pease, the land, after these 
are removed, receives one or more ploughings; it 
is then ridged up so as to lie dry and become 
pulverized during winter; and it receives one or 
more ploughings or grubbings in spring, imme- 
diately before sowing. But wheat far oftener 
and more appropriately succeeds beans, both be- 
cause it is a more valuable crop than barley, and 
because it and beans have a preference for the 
same kinds of soil. 
_In all the places of a rotation which we 
have mentioned—after a fallow, after potatoes, 
and after pulse, winter barley, except on tena- 
cious soils or in wet autumns, might as ap- 
propriately be sown as spring barley ; and, in 
accordance with a statement which we made 
when generally comparing the two kinds, the 
winter barley might very advantageously be pre- 
ferred. The mode of preparation for it is the 
same as for winter wheat, with the difference 
that every appliance must be used to bring the 
soil into a thoroughly porous and powdery condi- 
tion, and to have it both dry and freshly stirred 
at the time of sowing.—The bere of Highland 
districts, when sown as spring barley, ought if 
possible to have the same tilth and the same 
place in rotation as the two-rowed spring barley 
of England and Lowland Scotland; but as the 
preparation for it is generally effected by dig- 
ging, and cannot in numerous instances be ef- 
fected with horse-drawn implements, the main 
points to be attended to are, that the instrument 
employed be an actual spade, and not some 
miserable apology for one, and that this instru- 
ment be so handled as to destroy all perennial 
weeds and reduce the soil to a fine powder. 
The grand place for barley, in almost every 
kind of rotation, and upon all soils of medium 
character for lightness, or even upon soils which 
verge close upon the extremes of tenacity and 
sandiness, is after turnips, and In accompaniment 
with a sowing of clover and grass seeds. 
principle is universally admitted in the present 
improved British husbandry, and is generally 
acted upon in all the best barley districts of both 
England and Scotland. Yet the preparation for 
barley after turnips is not quite the same in Hng- 
land as in Scotland, and requires to be consider- 
ably modified in adaptation to different soils. 
Barley yields a tolerably fair produce upon light 
sandy lands, which are too poor to nourish wheat; | 
it yields not a bad produce upon half moorish 
lands, whose soil is somewhat pulverulent ; it suc- 
ceeds with difficulty, and makes wretched re- 
turns, upon any land which is adhesive, reten- 
tive, compact, and badly aerated; it thrives 
pretty well upon clayey lands which lie dry, and 
have been considerably commixed and rendered 
mechanically porous, with ashy and calcareous 
manures; it is luxuriant on good light dry land, 
such as rich black mould; and, in general, it 
makes its best returns upon lands of any kind 
which are chemically fertile and mechanically 
dry and powdery, or, in other words, which are 
rich in manurial elements and finely pulverized 
by thorough and skilful tillage. Yet both turnips 
and barley are necessarily grown upon soils of 
widely different character, varying from the 
tenacious clay to the almost drifting sand; and 
any reflecting person will therefore see at a 
glance that preparation for barley must be modi- 
fied always by the nature of the soil, and some- 
times by the comparative wetness or dryness of 
the season. 
In very light soils, such as those of a large 
proportion of the turnip lands of Norfolk, Suf- 
folk, and Essex, a chief part of the preparation 
for barley, is effected simply by the processes of 
cultivating the turnips, and feeding them off 
with sheep. “ When the land has been properly 
prepared for turnips, and well manured, and the 
eee eee ee ee eee eee 
re 
BARLEY. 
This . 
