Also 6 sprot-, 8 sprack-. [? f. SPROT1 and SPRAT sb.1] A species of barley, Hordeum zeocriton, with short broad ears and long awns.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 13. There be thre maner of barleys,… sprot-barleye, longe-eare, and beare-barley…. Sprot-barley hath a flat eare most comonly [etc.].
1651. R. Child, in Hartlib’s Legacy (1655), 78. There is not onely the ordinary Barley, but big sprat-Barley, which hath lately been sown in Kent with good profit.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 240. If the Land be rank, [they sow it] with that they call sprat-Barly.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 133. The common allowance of Seed is four Bushels to an Acre, though they say that three Bushels of Sprat Barley will do.
1736. Lewis, Hist. Antiq., 15. Sprack-Barley has formerly been pretty much sown in the rich Land in the Marshes.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 314. Barley is apt to lodge, which ruins the seeds, except sprat or battle-door barley is sown.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 83. The sprat or battledore barley makes good malt.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 699. H. zeocriton, Sprat or Battledore Barley.
