Daily National Intelligencer

BARLEY COFFEE.

FROM THE CHILICOTHE ALMANAC.

It is a fact, perhaps unknown to the most of our farmers, that Barley, when properly prepared, affords a beverage so similar, both in taste and color, to the best Green Coffee, that nine persons out of ten cannot discover the difference. This fact I now know by experience. At first it was with difficulty I overcame my own and the prejudices of my family in favor of coffee so far as to give the barley a single trial; but, having done so, I tested the truth of the experiment, and have continued in the use of it ever since, which is now about six months. The saving which this has made, for one article of family consumption, is considerable. My family formerly used two pounds of coffee per week, which, for six months, at 50 cents per lb. the lowest price it had sold for some time past, would be 52 lbs. or 26 dollars; now, for the same term of time, they have used at the rate of half a bushel of barley per month, which, at one dollar per bushel, the retail price, would be three bushels, or three dollars. In other words, the use of foreign coffee, for one year, will cost me fifty-two dollars in specie, whereas the use of barley, raised in my own neighborhood, will cost me only six dollars in the currency of the state; making an annual saving of 46 dollars to one family. Now, it will be readily admitted that there are in Ross at least 1,000 families; these, if they would abandon the use of coffee for barley, would produce a saving of 46,000 dollars annually to the county. It is ascertained that the merchants of Chillicothe alone annually import coffee to the amount of 40,000 dollars; this certainly requires 40,000 dollars of our products to pay for. Is it not very plain, then, that, if we stop the use of coffee, by substituting barley in its place, there will be an annual saving to the county of 40,000 in favor of our own products, which must be returned to us in specie instead of coffee. This sum alone, kept in circulation among us, would sensibly relieve the difficulty of the times. Economy is progressive, and goes from individuals to families, thence to counties, states, and governments. In times like the present, when we are hedged in with difficulties, none should hesitate to try an experiment so simple, where the advantages are obviously so great. Beware of little expenses, and remember, "that a penny saved is two-pence earned."

The manner of preparing barley is as follows: Take clean good barley, and wash it well through two or three waters, in order to separate the dust, light and blighted grains; then put it into boiling water over the fire, and let it boil until it swells sufficient to burst some of the grains; then take it off, and drain it and dry it in the sun, or in an oven after baking, or it may be dried slowly by the fire. It is then ready to parch as coffee, but be careful not to burn it; grind and use it, as you would coffee, clearing it with eggs. Barley, used in this way, I have known to deceive some of the best judges. Rye and wheat treated in the same way, answers the purpose, but is not so good as barley.