OF SCOTLAND.

489

w on what is called tlie hot-Jwr. It is also sown broadcastin ordinary cases, though sometimes drilled in the way al-ready mentioned in respect to wheat, more especially on landthat is much infested with annual weeds, or which, in otherwords, has been formerly cultivated in a slovenly manner.—The quantity of seed is regulated by the richness of the soiland judgment of the farmer, from two bushels and a half tofour bushels the acre; though it may be always safer to give ra-ther too much than too little seed.. According to the opinion ofa judicious and experienced writer on husbandry, “ thin sow-ing of barley must be attended with considerable disadvan-tage. If the early part of the season after sowing be dry, theplants must necessarily be stunted in their growth, and un-able to send out off-sets to stock the soil. When rain after-wards falls, which will unavoidably take place in the courseof the summer, the plants will necessarily then begin to stoolor tiller at a late period. These young shoots cannot be ex-pected to arrive at maturity; or if their ripening is wailed for,there is a great risk of losing the first or earlier growth of thecrop. Whether the second growth is waited for or not, thecrop is uniformly small as to quantity, of an inferior quality,and presents a very unequal sample. In such cases, the cropfrom the first growth often sinks down by its weight whenlull, under the shade of the green after-growth, and is conse-quently deprived of the beneficial influences of the sun andair for perfect ripening; it becomes sloamy , shrivelled, small,and ill coloured ; and when cut down is difficult to win,owing to its having so large a quantity of green unripe stfilksamong it. Upon the whole, therefore, it is surely preferable,not only k with barley, but all spring-sown grain, to give a suf-ficient quantity of seed to ensure a full crop from the firstgrowth, and not to depend upon tillering or planting out.

ith a full seed the crop grows and ripens equally, and thegrain is uniformly good, unless in very unfavourable seasons*.

* Brown’s Treatise on Rural .'iflairs.