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Barley

deep, running in the grain gradually in small | circumstance a field, to the eye, may appear to be quantities, from ten to twelve gallons; stirring the same. What floats skim off, and do not sow; then draw up the basket, to drain the pickle for a few minutes; this may be performed in half an hour, and when sufficiently pickled proceed as before. The wheat will be fit for sowing in twenty-four hours, if required; but for drilling two hours pickled will be best, and prepared four or five days before.

Mr. Henderson's Method of preventing Smut in Wheat.

Take of best soft green soap, made from fishoil, one pound, and of scalding water four gallons. Put the soap into a glazed vessel with a small portion of the water; continue stirring it, and add the water as it dissolves, till the whole is a perfect lye. It should be used at about ninety degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer or new-milk warm.

Put the wheat into a tub, and pour on it a quantity of the liquor sufficient to cover it completely, and throw a blanket over it to preserve the heat. Stir it every ten minutes, and take off the scum. When it has remained in this manner for an hour, drain the liquor from the wheat through a sieve, or let the tub be furnished with a drain-bottom like a brewing vat. Let the liquor which was drawn off stand a few minutes to subside, and then pour it off the sediment.

Repeat the operation till the whole quantity is steeped, only observe to add each time as much hot lye as was observed by the former steeping.

Dry the wheat with quick-lime, and sow as soon as convenient. It will keep ten days after steeping; but should be spread thin on a dry floor.

If a tub with a drain-bottom is used, such as a hogshead with a spigot to draw off the lye, four ounces of soap and one gallon of water, scalding hot, will preserve a stock of warm lye sufficient for any quantity of wheat. The operation should be performed in a clean place, at a distance from barns and granaries, the roofs of which may be observed hanging full of smut. The refuse of smutted wheat should be buried deep in the earth, and not thrown to the dunghill, from which it would be conveyed to the field.

Advantages of Reaping Grain before being Perfectly Ripe. M. Cadet de Vaux has recommended, as an important and useful innovation, the reaping of grain before it is perfectly ripe. This practice originated with M. Salles, of the Agricultural Society of Beziers: grain thus reaped (say eight days before it is ripe) is fuller, larger, and finer, and is never attacked by the weevil. This was proved by reaping one half of a field as recommended, and leaving the other till the usual time. The early-reaped portion gave a hectolitre (about three bushels) of grain more for an acre of land than the later-reaped. An equal quantity of flour from each was made into bread; that made from the grain reaped green gave seven pounds of bread more than the other in two bushels. The weevil attacked the ripe grain but not the green. The proper time for reaping is when the grain, pressed between the fingers, has a doughy appearance, like bread just hot from the oven when pressed in the same way.

To Manage the Wheat Harvest.

It is advantageous to cut wheat before it is fully ripe; but, in ascertaining the proper state, it is necessary to discriminate between the ripeness of the straw and the ripeness of the grain; for, in some seasons, the straw dies upwards, under which completely fit for the sickle, when, in reality, the grain is imperfectly consolidated, and perhaps not much removed from a milky state. Though it is obvious that under such circumstances no further benefit can be conveyed from the root, and that nourishment is withheld the moment that the roots die, yet it does not follow that grain so circumstanced should be immediately cut, because, after that operation is performed it is in a great measure necessarily deprived of every benefit from the sun and air, both of which have greater influence foot than when cut down, whether laid on the in bringing it to maturity SO long as it remains on ground or bound up in sheaves. The state of weather at the time also deserves notice, for as in moist or even variable weather every kind of grain, when cut prematurely, is more exposed to things will be studied by the skilful husbandman, damage than when completely ripened. All these who will also take into consideration the dangers which may follow were he to permit his wheat crop to remain uncut till completely ripened. The danger from wind will not be lost sight of, espe. cially if the season of the equinox approaches; even the quantity dropped in the field and in the stack-yard, when wheat is over ripe, is an object of consideration. Taking all these things into view, it seems prudent to have wheat cut before it is fully ripe, as less damage will be sustained from practice. acting in this way than by adopting a contrary

If the weather be dry and the straw clean, wheat may be carted to the stack-yard in a few days; indeed, if quite ripe it may be stacked immediately from the sickle, especially when not meant for early threshing. So long, however, as be found to be the best stack-yard; and where any moisture remains in the straw, the field will grass or weeds of any kind are mixed with the crop, patience must be exerted till they are decayed and dried, lest heating be occasioned. Barley.

Next to wheat the most valuable grain is barley, especially on light and sharp soils. It is a tender grain and easily hurt in any of the stages of its growth, particularly at seed time; a heavy shower of rain will then almost ruin a crop on the best prepared land; and in all the after processes greater pains and attention are required to insure success than in the case of other attended with danger; even the threshing of it is grains. The harvest process is difficult, and often not easily executed with machines, because the separation from the straw a troublesome task. awn generally adheres to the grain, and renders Barley, in fact, is raised at greater expense than wheat, and generally speaking is a more hazardous crop. Except upon rich and genial soils, where climate will allow wheat to be perfectly reared, it ought not to be cultivated.

Varieties of Barley.

Barley may be divided into two sorts, fall and spring; to which may be added a bastard variety, called bear or bigg, which affords similar nutriment or substance, though of inferior quality. The spring is cultivated like oats; the fall, like fall wheat. Early barley, under various names, was formerly sown in Britain upon lands that had been previously summer-fallowed, or were in high condition.

The most proper seed season for spring barley is any time in March or April, though we have seen good crops produced, the seed of which was sown at a much later period.

To prepare the Ground.