Wheat has, from time immemorial, been a staple crop in the plains of Northern India, and especially in the Punjaub.  The climate and soil are well fitted for this cereal, but owing to defects and carelessness in the agriculture and harvesting, the crops, though excellent, fall short of what most corn-growing countries produce.  Further—­owing to foul boats and granaries, and to the moist heat of the months immediately succeeding harvest, the wheat reaches England in a state too dirty and weevelled for market.  The hard wheat is preferred by the natives in India to the soft, probably for no better cause than that the hardness of the grain more closely resembles their favorite food, rice.

BARLEY.

Oats, rye and barley, are the staple crops of northern and mountainous Europe and Asia.  In England barley is grown principally in the eastern and some of the midland counties, and chiefly for malting.  It is most extensively cultivated in the Himalaya and Thibet, replacing in many districts the wheat, and producing an admirable flour.

Since the establishment of the studs at Buxar, Ghazepore, &c., oats have been extensively cultivated.  It is a winter crop.

Although believed to have been indigenous to the countries bordering on the torrid zone, this grain possesses the remarkable flexibility of maturing in favorable seasons and situations on the eastern continent as far north as 70 deg., and flourishes well in lat. 42 deg. south.  Along the Atlantic side of the continent of America, its growth is restricted to the tract lying between the 30th and 50th parallels of north latitude, and between 30 and 40 deg. south.  Near the westerly coast, its range lies principally between latitude 20 and 62 deg. north.  The barley chiefly cultivated in the United States is the two-rowed variety which is generally preferred from the fulness of its grain and its freedom from smut.  Barley has never been much imported from that country, as the Americans have been rather consumers than producers.  The consumption of barley there in 1850 in the manufacture of malt and spirituous liquors amounted to 3,780,000 bushels, and according to the census returns, the quantity of barley raised was 4,161,504 bushels in 1840, and 5,167,213 bushels in 1850.  In this country barley is extensively used for malting, distilling, and making beer; large quantities are consumed in Scotland, or carried into England.

In Prussia, about ten and a half million hectolitres of barley are annually raised.  In the Canary Isles, about 354,000 bushels are annually exported.  In Van Diemen’s Land in 1844, 174,405 bushels of barley were grown on 12,466 acres.

The quantity of barley made into malt in the United Kingdom in the year ending 10th October, 1850, was 5,183,617 quarters, of which about four million quarters were used by 8,500 maltsters.  The quantity of malt charged with duty in the year ending 5th January, 1851, was 636,641 tons; the average price per quarter, 26s. 2d.