upright, and subsequently of a pale red, which, when the flowering has passed, become brown and somewhat bent. The calyx is smooth, and its tags of equal length. The seed pods, containing three or four grains of seed, extend out of the calyx, surrounded by the withered crown. The seed is much less than that of red clover, is in the form of a kidney, and dark green or verging somewhat towards violet. Yellow green seed of this plant is not ripe.

Alsike clover does not attain its full luxuriance until the second or third year after it has been sown, and during the first year seldom arrives at any great degree of growth. It is therefore best adapted to mixture with grass, for permanent grass land. It yields, on suitable and fruitful soil, rich and good fodder. It loves clayey soil, especially marly clay, with a somewhat moist position; but it also thrives on cultivated fens and marshes. Alsike clover grows but little after mowing, and no second crop can be expected from it, as is the case with red clover. Both in this respect, as well as in the longer time it requires before it yields a full crop, Alsike clover stands after red clover. Its great and undeniable advantage, on the other hand, lies in the fact that it is far more hardy than red clover, and can be cultivated on moist soil, and land that is flooded at certain times of the year, on which red clover will not grow. If Alsike clover be mixed with white clover and Suitable grass, it yields rich and certain crops, and when cultivated on arable land common red clover may and should be mixed with the seed with which the field is sown, by which the great advantage is gained that, the first year after sowing, two crops of fodder may be gathered, chiefly consisting of red clover; and that the following years, in the same proportion as the red clover declines the Alsike clover appears in its place, and yields rich and certain crops, together with the grass with which it is sown.

With reference to cultivation and tending, the same prescriptions will apply, in the main, that are usually given with respect to red clover, with the addition of the following: As Alsike clover, in full vegetation, has a great tendency to lodge, it should always, when cultivated for fodder, be sown together with grass-by preference with meadow or fox-tail grass on marshy land, and with timothy grass on drier soil. The crops by this means become much richer, and the grass supports the Alsike clover, so that it does not fall down to the ground and

rot.

As Alsike clover seed is not more than about half the size of red clover seed, no more than about half as much, in measure, of the former is required as of the latter, and may be sown winnowed or in its pods like red clover. Every farmer will soon learn by observation what quantity of seed is required to the acre. If he uses the unwinnowed, or seed in the pod, the quantity required is four or five times greater than if he uses the clean seed.

The quality of grass and other kinds of seed that should be mixed with Alsike clover in sowing, when it is cultivated for fodder, we will specify below. Alsike clover seed, both winnowed and unwinnowed, may be sown in the autumn, directly after the sowing of autumn grain, or in the spring. When the seed is unwinnowed it is considered best to sow it in the autumn; it may, however, also be sown in the spring on the last snow. From the time Alsike clover first began to be cultivated by us, it has been found that "the unwinnowed seed produces a stronger growth than the winnowed," which has been rightly attributed to the fact that "the tender shoot derives, in part, its first nourishment from the husks that surround the seed." (Annals of the Academy of Agricul ture for the year 1819, 2d vol., p. 223.)

The yield of mixed grass and Alsike clover seed is, on good and rich soil, very considerable. Lundström (Hand Book for Farming, p. 294,) considers that it should yield, with certainty, from two to three tons per acre. At Frötuna, in Nerike, in four years, one of which was a very dry year, the average yield was nearly two tons of Alsike clover and timothy hay per acre; the largest crop, on well manured and lime strewed soil, amounted to between four and five

tons per acre, (Farming Transactions, 2d vol., p. 104,) a yield that certainly cannot be expected, excepting on very rich soil and in rainy years, in which Alsike clover especially thrives and attains much greater luxuriance than in ordinary dry summers. It yields, however, in general, good and safe crops, and both in the middle of Sweden, (especially in Nerike,) as well as at several places in Upland, Gestrickland, and Helsingland, Alsike clover mixed with grass is prized as being far more reliable than red clover. Alsike clover yields, too, better and finer hay, and when ripe the stalk is not so hard as red clover. Gathering the seed of Alsike clover demands especial care, as it is of importance to gather seed for home use; the purchase of such seed being always connected with considerable expense. In addition to this, however, the gathering of Alsike clover seed for sale may be attended with considerable profit, it being in great request in the foreign markets and fetching high prices. It is also well known that the gathering and sale of Alsike clover seed is now prosecuted on several estates as the main object, and it is desirable that the production of this seed for sale were more generally carried out, as from it might be derived a very profitable article of export.

On one estate in Sweden, where twenty acres were set apart for raising the seed, the average annual production for five years was 133 pounds per acre, while the production one year was 200 pounds per acre. When it is recollected

that Alsike clover seed generally obtains in the market about double the price of the common red clover seed, it is evident that the gathering of the former seed must render a very handsome return.

Alsike clover seed is more easily threshed than red clover seed. When cultivated and threshed together, the Alsike clover seed always comes out of the pods before the red clover seed. The ripened seed-head of Alsike clover, however, falls off easier than that of red clover, and therefore in mowing Alsike clover that has been allowed to ripen, still greater care must be taken than with the seed of red clover.

The mowing of ripe Alsike clover should always be effected either early in the morning or late in the evening while it is moist with dew; otherwise the riper seed pods fall off with the best and finest seed, however carefully the mowing may be performed. The mowed Alsike clover is left lying as it falls, and is turned once or twice while moist with dew, after which it is housed when dry. In carting home canvas lining should be used in the carts, of sufficient size to cover the whole of the bottom and a part of the sides of the carts, so that those seed pods that fall off in carting may not be lost.

If Alsike clover be employed for home use, it may, as mentioned above, be used unwinnowed or winnowed, and if in such case it be mixed with the seed of red clover or timothy grass, no injury would be caused, as, for the reasons before stated, the seeds of these plants may in any case be advantageously mixed with the seed of Alsike clover. If Alsike clover seed is to be sold, and especially if it is to go abroad, it should be perfectly clean and free from admixture with other seed. Every grain of seed found amongst another kind of seed which is intended to be perfectly winnowed, must be considered as weed seed, and the worst weed in Alsike clover that is left to ripen is timothy grass. Red clover seed may be separated from Alsike clover seed by means of a fine riddle adapted to the purpose, so that the former remains while the latter passes through the riddle; but this is not the case with timothy seed, which is so fine that even in the last riddling (of which more below) it cannot be separated from the Alsike clover seed. It is therefore best in the early summer, if it be observed that the Alsike clover is mixed with timothy, to mow the timothy as soon as it has shot into the ear, provided the seed of the Alsike clover is intended for the market.

Alsike clover is threshed like red clover. The experience of the farmer will direct him to the best method of separating the seed from the pod. It may be

done by passing the straw through a threshing machine, and then carefully separating it from the pods, which must be again (and perhaps more than once) passed through the machine to open them. But a better method, probably, is to thresh with the flail; for by this method the seed is disengaged from the pod and falls on the floor, instead of being blown away and often lost by the action of the machine. The pod is also more effectually and surely opened by the use of the flail.

When the seed has been winnowed on the corn sieve, it is riddled through three riddles of different degrees of fineness adapted to the purpose. The coarsest riddle is used first to separate coarse weed seed and anything else that may be mixed with the Alsike clover seed; then the second; and, lastly, the third and finest riddle. If the seed be dusty when it has passed through the last riddle, then, as a final process, it is slowly and cautiously passed through the corn sieve once more, by which means the dust is blown away.

BARLEY AND ITS USES.

BY J. M. SHAFFER, FAIRFIELD, IOWA.

BARLEY was cultivated in Egypt as food fifteen hundred years before the Christian era. The inspired historian records that hail was sent upon the land of Egypt as one of the plagues, and by it "the flax and the barley were smitten, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was bolled." Wheat was sown in that country in November and December, as soon as the Nile receded, and was reaped in May. Pliny says that barley is ready for the harvest six months after planting, and other grains seven months. There can be no doubt, from this early mention of barley in connexion with other cereals, that it formed no inconsiderable portion of the food of the people. A "homer of barley" is mentioned very frequently in the Bible, and contained seventy-five gallons and three pints, while the "ephah of barley" was about one-tenth the capacity of the homer.

The Israelites, under the leadership of Moses, in their forty years journeyings from Egypt to Canaan, were rebellious, and could only, it seems, be restrained from their lusts by a continuous display of signs and miracles. In the last year of their sojourn, Jehovah recounted their acts and His own, and, to incite them to faithfulness, He draws the following sublime picture of the land which was promised them for an inheritance: "A good land; a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranites; a land of oil, olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." Barley is here found associated with all that delights the eye, ministers to the comfort, and tends to render a country healthful, plentiful, and desirable. This, to the most unreflecting mind, is proof of its importance at that early period in the history of the race.

Twelve hundred and forty-five years before Christ, distinct mention is made of the "cake of barley." Gideon overheard, in the camp of the nemy, a comrade tell a dream how a "cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent and smote it, that it fell." Doubtless a dream and its interpretation inspired of Deity to give assurance to Gideon that the

Midianites should be delivered into his hands. But it teaches, also, the historical lesson that this grain formed part of the food of the people. And this is further illustrated in Ruth's gleaning in the fields of her kinsman, and afterwards at night (because, doubtless, of the sea-breeze which sprang up at that hour) of winnowing the grain and taking the first step necessary for its conversion into food.

In Solomon's reign (B. C. 975) there is the first mention of barley being used as food for the inferior animals. The officers who had in charge the King's revenue bought "barley, also, and straw, for the horses and dromedaries." Solomon also agreed to pay Hyram, King of Tyre, among other things, twenty thousand measures of barley for labor and material furnished by his people towards the erection of the temple. When Jotham conquered the Ammonites he laid tribute upon them in silver and wheat and barley. Thus this grain was a "legal tender," both for labor and revenue, and cannot fail to illustrate the estimation in which it was held at that time.

These facts give abundant evidence that barley was most highly esteemed, forming a prominent item in the wealth and prosperity of the people. It was, 1st, an article of food for man; 2d, for the inferior animals; 3d, a measure of quantity; 4th, an element of worldly prosperity; 5th, a price for labor, and stone, and lumber; 6th, a symbol of Divine interposition in human affairs; 7th, the standard of wealth; and ever since those early times it has been cultivated among the nations of the earth, forming no small proportion of their food, and, in some instances, affording an element of commerce.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

There are several varieties of barley in cultivation. The most common are Hordeum Vulgare, H. Hexasticon, H. Distichon, and II. Zeoitron. The firstnamed is the spring barley; the second is the six-rowed barley; the third, the two-rowed barley; the fourth, the sprat or Battledore barley. They are found in commerce in several forms, depending upon the processes to which the grain has been subjected. Scotch hulled, or pot barley, is the grain deprived of its husk in a mill. Pearl barley is so called when all the integuments of the grain are removed, and they are rounded and polished. When pearl barley is ground into powder it is called patent barley.

The subjoined table, compiled by M. Payen, shows the proportions of the proximate principles of the cereal grains :

Barley is cultivated and raised in greater or less quantities in every State of the Union. This vast area, representing very different climates and every variety of soil, seems almost equally adapted to its growth. The testimony, however, is in favor of a rich, loose soil, and a careful preparation of the land before 'seeding. Delaware and South Carolina produced an equal quantity in 1847; so New York and Pennsylvania; so Tennessee produced nearly as much as New Hampshire. This grain will yield an average crop of twenty-three bushels per acre in any part of the country. Some extraordinary crops are recorded. A person in Cheltenham, England, in 1846, drilled in, February 4, five pecks to the acre; on the 4th of July it was harvested, and yielded fifty-two bushels and two pecks per acre, weight fifty-five and a half pounds per bushel. A gentleman, from seventeen grains, obtained 17,235 as the first product; another, from fifteen, obtained 290 ears, which yielded 20,880 grains.

The following table indicates the price of the cereals at Chicago at the times mentioned, and may serve as a commencement to the inquiry, "Is barley a profitable crop?"

Wheat.

Corn.

Oats.

Rye.

Barley.

Sept., 1863-4.... $1 08 to $2 05 $0 76 to $1 30 $0 54 to $0 84 $0 82 to $150 $1 17 to $1 40

This table records the highest and lowest prices of grain from September 26th to July 1st, and only includes number one lots. The prices of number two are gomewhat lower than number one. Barley seems to be liable to less fluctuation than wheat or rye. Edmund Burke, Commissioner of Patents in 1847. says: "With the exception of New York, the quantity raised in the United States would not be worth trying to ascertain. Its use is mainly for malt purposes, and the claims of temperance seem to have contributed very much to lessen the whole." It will be developed, in the course of this paper, that barley has been steadily increasing in favor as a field crop, and that the use of malt liquors has advanced with gigantic strides among the people. Thus the following statement indicates the product of barley for the several years stated in the United States: 1840, 4,038,315 bushels; 1847, 5,649,950 bushels; 1850, 5,109.054 bushels; 1860, 15,433,297 bushels; 1863, 17,754,351 bushels.

The wheat crop of 1850 was 100,485,944 bushels, and in 1860, 171,183,381 bushels, or an increase in ten years of about 70 per cent., while the increase of barley in the same period was nearly 300 per cent. The yield in the State of New York in 1847 was 3,931,000 bushels, or three-fifths of the entire product