| they are mown.” 
| parts of eastern and southern England. 
sure of the grains to the depredations of birds. 
Mr. Arthur Young—speaking without particular 
reference, yet so that he must be understood as 
referring to the barley harvest of Norfolk, Suf- 
folk, and similar districts—says, “The barley 
crops should generally have good field room, lying 
five or six days after mowing. They will im- 
prove; and if a heavy shower of rain comes, it 
will not diminish the farmer’s profit ; it will 
make the grain swell and measure more per acre; 
for maltsters reckon much on their profit in such 
dry harvests that the barleys receive no rain after 
This practice, however, if not 
conducted within rigid limits, would be a peril- 
ous one in most seasons in Scotland, in Ireland, 
or in the north of England, and must not be car- 
ried to an intrepid length in even the driest 
Hence 
even Mr. Young adds, “ While barley lies in the 
swathe, if much rain comes, it is apt to sprout. 
In the wet harvest of 1801, this crop in Norfolk 
presented a most melancholy spectacle. Three 
or four wet and very warm days made it grow to 
| such a degree, that when the swathes came to be 
turned, they looked asif feathers had been strew- 
ed along every swathe. Many thousand acres 
were thus damaged. Those farmers escaped best 
who ‘lifted’ the swathes before they were dry 
enough to turn; they raised them lightly from 
the ground with forks to let air in,—a practice 
worth recommending.” The greatest antagonist 
which British barley has, in fact, is the moisture 
of our climate; and the main care of a wise 
farmer, throughout the entire treatment of bar- 
ley, from the sowing till the complete securing 
of it, is to protect it from this antagonist. . So 
exceedingly apt is barley to sprout, under even 
a brief duration of moisture, especially when the 
| temperature is above 45° or even 40°, that ears 
of it may sometimes be seen in full germination 
actually before the crop is reaped; and sprouted 
| barley, even when its further vegetation is check- 
ed by dry weather or by the kiln, is so exceed- 
ingly deteriorated in quality as to be fit only for 
feeding poultry and swine. When reaped in 
showery or humid weather, it ought to be ga- 
thered into single sheaves slightly bound near 
the end, and set upon their spread-out butts; and 
when such sheaves are ready to be carried, they 
should be rebound in the manner of ordinary 
sheaves. When. the crop is mown, it ought to lie 
no longer in the swathe than till moderately dry; 
and it ought then to be gathered into sheaves 
and stooked. The crop should remain in stooks 
till the grain is completely hardened, and the 
straw perfectly freed from natural sap; else it 
will be exceedingly apt to heat in the stack. The 
risk of heating is, in almost any case, considerable; 
yet it may be entirely avoided by letting the 
crop completely dry before removal, and by stor- 
ing its stacks with open frames, bosses, or cages 
through their centre, and duly thatched with straw. 
See the articles Stack, Farm, and Harvusr. 
BARLEY. 
— 
Thrashing.—Barley will keep well unthrashed 
for a year: and when intended for malt, it may 
be kept till the second spring; but if kept longer 
than eighteen months, or at the utmost two 
years, it is almost certain to be overrun and de- 
stroyed by insects. On account both of the awn- 
edness of its grains, and the texture of its straw, 
it requires more care in thrashing than any 
other cereal crop. When it has been mown, all 
the straw, independently of the necessity of se- 
parating the awns, requires to be twice thrashed; 
and whether mown or otherwise reaped, the 
grains must undergo an additional process to 
ordinary thrashing in order to be freed from 
their awns. ‘This additional process is called 
hummeling ; and the contrivance for effecting 
it is called a hummeler. See the article Hum- 
MELER. 
Produce.—The produce of barley in England is 
said to vary from 15 to 75 bushels per acre. The 
average produce in Middlesex has been estimated 
at about four quarters per acre; in England and 
the south of Scotland, at 32 bushels; and in all 
England, all Scotland, and Wales, at 28 bushels. 
The ordinary produce of good varieties, on good 
soil, and under good culture, is from 30 to 50 
bushels per acre, and from 45 lbs. to 58 Ibs. weight 
per bushel; but this quantity is sometimes, in the 
most favourable concurrence of circumstances, 
considerably exceeded ; it is always liable to 
some modification from causes over which a far- 
mer has little or no control; it is mainly affected 
by the quality of soil, climate, weather, tillage, 
and sowing; and it is, in no inconsiderable de- 
gree, modified by the particular variety of the 
seed. The weight per bushel of some of the best 
varieties, according to specimens deposited in 
the Highland Society’s Museum, is of common 
two-rowed English barley 54 lbs.,—of Chevalier, 
54%, 563, and 58 lbs.,—of Annat, 544 and 57 Ibs.,— 
and of Dunlop, 53} lbs. 
Diseases.—The diseases to which barley is sub- 
ject, are fewer and less virulent than those which 
attack wheat. It is sometimes affected by smut, 
principally from the minute but now well-known 
fungus called Uredo segetum. See the article 
Urepo. It is preyed upon by the larvee of several 
insects, especially by those of a small moth called 
Tinea horde. From 20 to 30 eggs of this fly are 
deposited in one grain of thrashed or stored 
barley ; and each of the larvee, when hatched, 
selects a grain for itself, bores its way into the 
interior, and there lies concealed. When the 
Tinea hordei is timeously observed in a granary, 
it may be exterminated by spreading out for it a 
few handfuls of the barley, carefully covering all 
the rest of the unattacked grain, and roasting or 
destroying the decayed handfuls after they have 
received the insects’ eggs, and before these have 
time to be hatched. An insect, hitherto either 
not at all or confusedly described, sometimes at- 
tacks and materially damages the growing crop. 
Mr. Crisp of Rugby, near Alnwick, says respect- 
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