SOIL FOR BARLEY 329 



and a smaller amount during the growing season than any other 

 cereal. Although an important crop in Norway and Sweden, it 

 was formerly the bread plant of the people bordering on the 

 Mediterranean Sea. It is said to grow in the extreme North, 

 where the soil melts only a few inches deep. It seems, how- 

 ever, to be best adapted to a warm, dry climate, although an 

 abundance of rain does not prevent its successful culture. It 

 requires less water in the Western States for irrigation than 

 wheat or oats, and can be successfully grown more seasons in 

 the semiarid region wdthout irrigation than oats or spring 

 wheat 



The average maturing period is less than for oats or spring 

 wheat. At the Wisconsin Station during five years it has 

 varied with different varieties from seventy-eight to eighty-eight 

 days, the average being eighty-four days ; at North Dakota 

 Station the season has varied from eighty-two to ninety-four 

 days. (386) 



453. Soil. — Whether the peculiar distribution of barley in 

 the United States is in any way dependent upon soil has not 

 been ascertained. The development and distribution of the 

 culture of a crop are due to so many causes, natural and 

 economic, as to make it difficult to trace soil influences. The 

 indications are, however, that the nature of the soil makes more 

 difference with barley than with other cereal crops. English 

 experience would indicate that rather sandy and well drained 

 soils are better than clay soils or soils not well drained. Barley 

 needs a fertile soil, and does not appear to stand growing con- 

 tinuously on the same land as well as other cereals. The rate 

 of decline of barley at Rothamsted during forty years of con- 

 tinuous culture without fertilizers was considerably greater than 

 in the case of wheat. 



454. Rotation. — Perhaps no cereal crop requires more care 

 bestowed upon the rotation than does barley. Where barley 

 replaces the wheat crop, the rotation may be maize, barley and 



