USE OF BARLEY 337 



III. USE. 



464. Use. — Barley is chiefly used as a food for domestic 

 animals and for malting purposes. Barley meal is a siwtable 

 tood for all classes of domestic animals wherever maize would 

 be found desirable, which it nearly equals in feeding value. In 

 Europe it takes the place largely which maize does in America. 

 In this country, its use as a stock food is not general as com- 

 pared with maize or oats, except in the Pacific Coast States, where 

 it is largely raised, not only for its grain but also for hay. Bar- 

 ley is little used in this countr}- as an article of human food, 

 principally as pearl barley. Pearl barley is the naked kernel, 

 the hull having been removed by special machiner}\ Barley 

 straw is at least equal in feeding value to oat straw. When used 

 as bedding, one part of wheat straw has been found to absorb 

 2.2 parts of water, oat straw 2.28 parts, w^hile one part of barley 

 .straw has been found to absorb 2.85 parts of water.^ 



465. Use for Malting. — While oats and w^heat are sometimes 

 used in the production of malt, barley is preferred because it 

 develops less insoluble proteids, has greater peptonizing and 

 diastatic power. It is also preferred to wheat on account of its 

 hull. (440) Maize is not desirable on account of its high per 

 cent of fat. While neither maize nor rice is used for malting, 

 both are largely used in the manufacture of beer as raw cereals, 

 the rice having its hull removed and the maize being degermi- 

 nated. Both are used with malt. 



466. By-Products. — There are two by-products in the pro- 

 duction of malt extract: (i) malt sprouts and (3) brewers' grains. 

 Both are placed upon the market in the wet and dry state. For 

 sanitary reasons, they are best purchased in the latter state. 

 Malt sprouts, as the name implies, are the sprouts or young 

 barley plants which have been sprouted for the purpose of 

 r,hanging the starch of the barley into a soluble form where it 



I E. S. R. V, p. 144. 



