490
The time of sowing follows that of oats. The most properseed-time is the latter part of March or beginning of April*though good crops are often produced from a much laterseed-time, even to the middle of May. Bear or big may besown much later than barley, as it grows and ripens withgreater rapidity. But it may be assumed as a general rule,that early sowing, when the land is in proper order, is alwaysmost desirable in every variety of the culmiferous grains thatare sown in spring, as it ensures the chance of a proper sea-son for ripening the crop, and for the operations of harvest.Under the old system of Scotch husbandry, when the infieldwas constantly cropped, and filled with seed-weeds, barley wasseldom sown till after the middle or about the end of May \both for the purpose of destroying part of these weeds by thetillage of a spring fallow, and that the barley might have theadvantage of an advanced and warmer season to outstrip theremaining weeds in rapidity of growth, it being then too of-ten a contest between the cultivated grain and the host ofweeds, which of them was to gain the mastery in the occupa-tion of the soil.—Nothing can possibly be stated as to thedepth at which barley is, or ought to be, deposited in the soil,farther than has been already mentioned in regard to wheat.—Rolling has been already mentioned, at the beginning ofthis section, as .generally given to the barley crop, especiallyas the land is for the most part sown with clover and rye-grass along with it.
When drilled, the barley crop is usually hand-hoed , beforeor after the sowing of clover and rye-grass, in the same man-ner as has been already mentioned with respect to wheat. Itis hardly ever weeded by hand, farther than cutting overthistles and other large weeds by means of the weed-hook ;yet within these few years, some superior managers have be-gun to see the propriety of this useful operation, that their highpriced lands, may be devoted entirely to the growth of profi-table crops, instead of being ruinously usurped by a multipli-city of weeds. The reporter has lately seen with much plea-