MOWING BARLEY
Barley and oats have weaker stalks than wheat, and so they are sometimes mown with a scythe like hay, and sometimes cut with an instrument called a cradle. This is done much quicker than reaping with a sickle, which, indeed, would be inconvenient; for the short stalks of these plants would oblige the labourer to stoop painfully low, if he had to use that instrument. The scythe and cradle, you know, have long handles, which enable him to work more at his ease.
The chief use of barley, is to make malt for the brewer. It is laid in heaps and wetted, when it begins to grow, and then acquires a sweetish taste, and being dried in a kind of oven called a kiln, it is fit for brewing.
In some countries, bread is made of barley meal. In Scotland, oats are very much used for bread and cakes; but in our country and in England, they are chiefly consumed by horses. Yet, as we all know, oatmeal is a very useful commodity for the sick, and forms the innocent food called gruel, which could not be made so well of wheat flour.
WINNOWING GRAIN
When the grain has been threshed out of the straw, you know that it is all mixed with the chaff and other particles of dust, so that it would make very husky puddings if ground in that state. There are three methods chiefly used of separating and cleansing the grain. One is by a kind of large dish made of basket work, called a fan, in which a man takes and shakes the grain repeatedly in the wind until the chaff flies off. Another way is to open the barn doors before and behind, and when the wind blows through the barn, to throw the grain in shovels full against the wind, from one side of the floor to the other. It is astonishing to see how completely the wind will separate the chaff and dust by this method. But an engine has been invented within a few years, called a fanning-mill, in which fan-wheels are made to revolve so quickly as to produce a very strong current of air within, and thus effectually cleanse the grain.