OF SCOTLAND.

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eight or fifty, and sometimes even sixty, which is an abundantone. From thirty to forty-two may be reckoned fair averagecrops on good soils and in favourable years.—The applicationof the barley crop is partly to pay the gains or wages of thefarm-servants, in those parts of Scotland where barley-breadis the customary household fare of the country people. Theprincipal part of the produce is sold to brewers for malting,to millers for manufacturing into pot-barley or barley-meal,and to corn-denlers or distillers. The interior grain, cleanedout from among the good, is given to the farm-horses, eitherbroken by passing through the mill, or steeped in hot water;in which latter way, it is thought serviceable, by keeping theircoats clean, and their bowels loose, when confined duringwinter to dry provender.

The straw is applied both as fodder to wintering cattle andhorses, and as litter to the cattle and horses of the farm. Theawns are given to the cattle in the straw-yard or to the cows;for which latter purpose, they are sometimes boiled along withchaff and other winter provender. The price varies accord-ing to quality and demand ; though of late years this grain,so far as farmers are concerned, has never found its level inthe market, owing to the incessant changes in the laws whichregulate distillation. Many farmers have therefore been in-duced to substitute spring-sown wheat after turnips instead ofbarley; and on soils of decent fertility, spring-sown wheatwill generally pay better for cultivation than barley, even al-though the quantity produced from the acre may be consi-derably inferior.

§ 7. Manufacture into bread .—In the ordinary householdeconomy of the working people and farmers in several parts ofScotland , barley-bread is much used, in which a small admix-ture of meal from peas or beans, from a third to a fourth partor loss, is commonly employed. This mixed meal, passedthrough a coarse sieve to separate the bran or fibrous part ofthe husk, is kneaded up with water and a little salt, withoutyeast or leaven, and is formed into round cakes about an inch