Note 216 — CHAP. XV. Of Change of Individuals.

Barley is far from being improved by becoming rath-ripe; for it loses more good Qualities than it gets by being sown at Patney: ’Tis so tender, that if it be sown early, the Frost is apt to kill it; or if it be sown late in May, on the same Day, and in the same Soil, with the same Sort of Barley that is not rath-ripe, it will be much thinner bodied than the late-ripe; and besides, if it happens to have any Check by Cold or Drought, it never recovers it as the other doth, at what time soever it is sown. It is now, I am informed, gone out of Fashion, and very few Farmers have sown it of late Years. I know a little Parish, that, I believe, formerly lost about Two hundred Pounds per Ann. by sowing rath-ripe Barley: But long and dear Experience hath now convinced them of their Error, and obliged them totally to disuse it.