W. YOUNGMAN 15] 
From Table III given above it will be seen that a vapour pressure of 
0°87” (0°U213 grm. water vapour per litre of air) may be taken as the safest 
maximum to which Indian barley intended for germination may be exposed. 
Exposure to this amount of humidity for fourteen weeks has no deleterious 
effect. Exposure to greater amounts of humidity than thisis serious. A vapour 
pressure of 0°89” (—0°0216 grm. water per litre of air) after fourteen weeks or 
less reduces the germination by roughly some 25 per cent. and greater humidity 
than this totally destroys germinating power in fourteen weeks or less. 
Comparisons between Table III and the maps showing the aqueous 
vapour pressures inland for the months of May and July are instructive. A 
series of these maps for each month of the year is to be found in the 
“ Climatological Atlas of India.” For fuller details a reference to them may 
be made. In short it may be said that conditions in June are intermediate 
between May and July and that July conditions represent somewhat those of 
August and September. October to April rarely shows vapour pressures 
above 0°85” anywhere, not even on the seaboard. After May barley 
in North-Eastern India is to be regarded as having been subjected 
to atmospheric conditions that have a deleterious effect upon its 
germination. Unless extraordinary storage precautions be taken barley 
in this region during the period of the monsoon will have its germination 
reduced by anything up to some 25 per cent. Thus we see where and 
why the cultivator’s séed rate is high. Barley required for malting purposes 
(or any other use involving its germination) should not be that exported from 
Calcutta after May. Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and Oudh produce the barley 
exported from Calcutta. Its germination could, if necessary, be fully 
protected by transporting it from the danger zone toward tvarachi or 
Bombay before, say, the end of June. This would involve some extra cost for 
increased railway transport. It should not be stored on the Western seaboard 
area. Barley in North-West and Central India has its germination 
unimpaired throughout the year and if exported from Bombay or Karachi, 
and not delayed long in the seaboard area, will not have suffered from 
the effects of harmful atmospheric conditions. It might be supposed that 
humidity conditions over the ocean which the grain would encounter during 
seaborne transport to Europe are above the safety maximum. They 
may be, but on a normal voyage they are not likely to last sufficiently 
long to have a serious effect. 
In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge the assistance received from Mr. A. 
Wilson, of the Indian Agricultural Service ; The Director of Statistics, India ; 
and The Director-General of Observatories, Indian Meteorological Department. 
