_Vermicelli_ is made by a mixture of flour, cheese, the yolks of eggs, sugar and saffron. This, being reduced to a proper consistency, is formed into long slender pieces or threads, like worms, by being forced, with a piston, through a number of little holes, in the end of a pipe made for the purpose. Vermicelli was first brought from Italy, and it is chiefly used in soups and other culinary preparations. 30. _BARLEY is a well known kind of corn_ (Hordeum distichon, Fig. 15.) _which grows wild in the island of Sicily, and some other parts of the south of Europe._ Next to wheat, this is, in Europe, the most valuable of all the species of grain, especially for growth on light and sharp soils. The seed-time for barley usually commences about the end of March or the beginning of April, and sometimes lasts until the first week in June; and, for the produce, four quarters per acre are considered a fair average crop, and eight quarters a very extraordinary one. Few instances of fecundity in corn are more remarkable than what has been related of two grains of SIX-ROWED BARLEY (_Hordeum hexastichon_) which were planted in a garden: they produced 113 stalks, nearly all of which yielded ears; and these contained, in the whole, more than 2,500 grains. The principal use to which barley is applied in this country is for the making of _malt_, from which beer and ale are brewed. For this purpose it is first steeped in water for three or four days. It is then taken out, and suffered to lie, until it begins to sprout or germinate. As soon as the germination has approached a certain state its further progress is prevented by drying the barley in a kiln, heated with coke, charcoal, or straw. The grain has now become mellow and sweet; and, after having been crushed in a kind of mill contrived for the purpose, its saccharine qualities are easily extracted by the boiling water, in brewing. The liquor that is thus produced has the name of _wort_; and this, after having undergone the process of fermentation, and having received a bitter flavour by a mixture of hops, becomes ale or beer. Hence has originated the general appellation of _malt liquor_. What remains of the malt after brewing is called _grains_. These, in London, are employed for the feeding of horses, cows, and swine.