^^O THE CEREALS IN AMERICA 



oats, each one year; or timothy and clover one or more years. 

 The land has thus had surface tillage the previous year and 

 may have been manured. In some regions barley replaces 

 oats, v^hen the rotation becomes maize, barley and wheat, each 

 one year, followed with clover or clover and timothy one or two 

 years. It is a matter of observation that the yield of winter 

 wheat following barley is better than that following oats, 

 especially in regions where water is readily exhausted from the 

 soil. This is doubtless due to the greater water requirement 

 of oats as compared with barley, which makes it more difficult 

 to prepare a suitable seed bed, and causes the wheat subse- 

 quently sown to germinate and grow more slowly. 



It is thought that the extensive experiments of Lawes and 

 Gilbert indicate that the quality of barley is injured by follow- 

 ing root crops, and is best in England when following wheat. 

 All the various cultural conditions combined, however, have 

 less influence on both quantity and quality of produce than has 

 the weather.^ 



455. Manuring. — As the straw is comparatively short, barley 

 will stand liberal manuring without lodging. Where lodging 

 occurs, the filling of the grains is less interrupted than in the 

 case of oats. Stable manure or commercial fertilizers may be 

 applied directly to land intended for barley in quantities sug- 

 gested for wheat. (122, 123, 124) Generally, however, it is 

 better farm practice to apply the manure to the previous maize 

 crop, and, if further fertilizing is required, apply commercial 

 fertilizers for the barley. That barley responds as well as other 

 cereal crops to the use of various forms of fertilizers is shown 

 by the following table, giving the average yields of barley, wheat 

 and oats during sixteen years on the same land at the Central 

 Experimental Farms, fertilizers having been applied continu- 

 ously during the first eleven years : ^ 



1 Jour. Roy. Agr. Soc. England, 3 Sen 11 (1900), pt. 2, pp. 185-251, pk. 11. 



2 Can. Expt. Farms Rpt. 1903, p. 24 ei se^. 



