ce as early as
February, provided a fine tilth is obtainable, but it rarely extends beyond
the end of April. If artificial manures are used, a usual dressing consists
of 2 or 3 cwt. of superphosphate to the acre at the time of sowing,
followed, if the ground is in poor condition, by 1 cwt. of nitrate of soda
when the plant is showing. Nitrogen must, however, be applied with caution
as it makes the barley rich in albumen, and highly albuminous barley keeps
badly and easily loses its germinating capacity. Farm-yard manure should
also be avoided. After-cultivation may comprise rolling, harrowing (to
preserve the fineness of the tilth) and in some districts hoeing. Barley is
cut, either with scythe or machine, when it is quite ripe with the ears
bending over. The crop is often allowed to lie loose for a day or two,
owing to the belief that sunshine and dews or even showers mellow it and
improve its colour. It may even be stacked without tying into sheaves,
though this course involves greater expenditure of labour in carrying and
afterwards in threshing. There is a prejudice against the use of the binder
in reaping barley, as it is impossible to secure uniformity of colour in
the grain when the stalks are tightly tied in the sheaf, and the sun has
not free access to those on the inside. In any case it must not be stacked
while damp, and if cut by machine is therefore sometimes tied in sheaves
and set up in stocks as in the case of wheat. The above sketch indicates
the general principles of barley-cultivation, but in practice they are
often modified by local custom or farming exigencies.

Barley is liable to smut and the other fungus diseases which attack wheat
(_q.v._), and the insect pests which prey on the two plants are also
similar. The larvae of the ribbon-footed corn-fly (_Chlorops taeniopus_)
caused great injury to the barley crop in Great Britain in 1893, when the
plant was weakened by extreme drought. A fair crop of barley yields about
36 bushels (56 lb to the bushel) per acre, but under the best conditions 40
and 50 bushels may be obtained. The yield of straw is from 15 to 20 cwt.
per acre. Barley-straw is considered inferior both as fodder and litter.

[1] Barley is occasionally sown in autumn to provide keep for sheep in the
following spring.

BARLEY-BREAK, an old English country game frequently mentioned by the poets
of the 17th and 18th centuries. It was played by three pairs composed of
one of each sex, who w