BARLEY CULTUBE.

Southland Times, Issue 1241, 29 April 1870, Page 2

BARLEY CULTUBE.

The suitability of the soil and climate of .Southland for the growth of barley hare often been commented upon, and our farmers urged to devote their attention to that cereal.- Tbe returns recently collected, and published in our columns, show that a large breadth was added to the barley crop last season, and the yield given per acre should induce its still more extensive • cultivation. The : Western District was particularly conspicuous for the extent and excellence of its barley fields, and its success should stimulate other localities, equally favored by nature, to. follow its example. Besides being a crop suitable to our variable climate, maturing as it does in a much shorter time than wheat, producers have akothe equally stimulating" advantage of a local market "for its -disposal^ to almoßt any extent. There are now three or four malting establishments within the province, capable of absorbing a very large quantity of grain, while a still larger quantity might be annually Bhipped to Australian markets in the shape of what is known as "pot barley." To. encourage this export, as well as to increase their own business, Messrs Hay and Mentiplay have recently added to their steam mills, a barley mill of the most perfect construction. The mill in question is one patented by the late Mr Tenant, of Leith, who perished in theill-fated " liondon," while bn'hia way.: to visit these colonies, and is about as per -

feet a piece of mechanism as it is possible to imagine. Barley used to be the grain most troublesome to the miller, and most destructive to his health, owing to the immense clouds of'^ dust raised by the operation as formerlyjper- --;■' formed. By the new contrivance, '.however/ the >, dust is entirely suppressed, the grain is run : through much • quicker, and more ■ ; regularly: finished than v v"war8 r possible under.theold sty|e.v;v Some idea of the of the apparatus-' may be formed when it j is 'Stated that :the>grain requires to be" simply emptied; from the farmer's • cart into the large^ bin do. th^ i upper, floor, *nd-. left to the action jpf the machine, which, by most ingenious applications of cones, cranks, pinions, belts, eccentrics, &c, &c, takes all further. i troubje c off the hands of the milier until tneHti-iriey is^ delivered " Bifted" and "sized" into bags readyfor the market. The m ichine feeas itself, regu-^' lates the operation' which" produces "flae" or "coarse" barley, empties itself-— -the grain by one shoot, the dust by another— and finally bags - the barley, according to ita merits, fine, "medium, and common. The part of the machine which, performs the latter operation is an addition made to it by Mr Mentiplay, and adds much to its perfection. So far as the capacity of the mill is . concerned, it may Bimply be remarked that it is capable of running through in the course of the year a much larger quantity of grain than is likely to be brought to it for some time, unless, indeed, the farmers generally recognise the superiority of this crop, and put in hereafter a much larger acreage. . , '