Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/196

172] lessening the dangers of adulteration, which (whether well or ill-founded), resound from every quarter of the metropolis.

Properties.—Barley has, from the earliest ages, been considered as wholesome and nutritive food for man and cattle. In diseases of the kidneys, and the breast, as well as in that state of the body where it is said to abound in acrimonious humours, decoctions made of this grain, sufficiently strong, and acidulated with vinegar and sugar, are eminently useful.—(See also, .)

As a cooling and diluent beverage, barley-water is of essential service to febrile patients, and in all inflammatory cases, where preternatural heat and thirst prevail; but to promote its salutary effect, the grosser parts, which remain after decoction, ought not to be swallowed.  . See.  BARN, in husbandry, a covered building or place, with vent-holes in the sides, for laying up any kind of grain, hay, or straw.

This kind of store-house being so well known to all rural economists, no farther description will be necessary: but as several plans have been proposed for its improvement, we shall give an account of those which appear the most worthy of notice.

In the sixteenth volume of Mr. 's "Annals of Agriculture," we find the following description of a barn, &c. communicated to the editor by the Rev., of Rougham, near Bury St. Edmund's:—"Let the underpinning be of brick or stone, two feet high above ground, and let the sides be boarded: the roof of the barn will be best covered with reed or straw, and those of the stables with slate, or glazed tile; because they must be more flat, and the water which runs from the roof of the barn would injure most other coverings. At each end of the barn, and over the back-door, small doors, four feet square, should be fixed, at the height of twelve feet from the ground; the two former for putting corn in at the ends, and the latter for filling the middle of the barn, after the bays are full. All the bays should have a floor of clay or marl, and the threshing-floor be made with hard bricks, which will be sufficient for all sorts of grain, except wheat and rye; and for threshing them, it will be good economy to have planks of oak or red deal, well fitted together and numbered, to be laid down occasionally, and confined by a frame at their ends. A barn built on such a plan would hold a great deal of corn, and be filled most conveniently: and if stacks of corn were built at each end, they might be taken in without any carting. If more buildings are requisite, two may be added on the backside, like the stables in front: otherwise, if doors are made under the eaves on the backside, as directed at the ends, and stacks be placed opposite to them (just far enough to avoid the eaves dropping), by placing a waggon between them and the barn by way of a stage, those stacks may be taken in without carting; which method prevents a great waste of corn, and much trouble. The spars of the roofs of the stables rest upon the upper sills of the sides of the barn, and the outside wall of the stable is eight feet high: the barn supplying the highest side, and one end of each stable; and the