72 FARMER'S BOOK OF GRASSES 



seas and lakes, and in moist prairies, has not yet found its \vu\ 

 to the more southern States. These three grasses all look much 

 like the cultivated barley. 



4. H. VULGARE, Common Barley, is one of the first grains 

 used for human food, being mentioned in the oldest records ex- 

 tant. It adapts itself \vith wonderful facility to all climates, 

 maturing equally in the heat of the torrid, and cold of the frig- 

 id zones. It is to be treated here only as a forage plant, and 

 two varieties only need be mentioned. The common six-rowed 

 variety is largely planted in this country, both in the latter 

 part of summer, early fall and spring. Originally a spring bar- 

 ley., it became inured to winter. The rows are not perfectly 

 regular, the alternate rows being less prominent. This, howev- 

 er, is not what is called the true winter barley, square barley, or 

 Hordeum hexastichum. The common barley produces more 

 grain, but the grains are not quite so large as those of the Two- 

 rowed barley, Hordeum distichwn. The difference in the yield 

 of the two, however, is not very great, and both may be sown 

 in our more southern States either in fall or spring. 



There is no four-rowed barley as sometimes stated and as 

 might be supposed by not examining carefully. The ear or 

 head of barley is what is called a spike. At each joint of the 

 spike are three spikelets, each with a fertile flower, in the com- 

 mon barley. As these triple spikelets alternate, when the seeds 

 mature, the head becomes rounded and there appear six, more 

 or less pefect, rows of grain. In the two-rowed kind, only one 

 spikelet at each joint of the rachis has a perfect flower : the 

 other two spikelets being reduced to sterile rudiments. The 

 spike is longer, however, and the grain having more room is a 

 little larger than the six-rowed kind. 



I have planted barley almost solely for winter pasture-, the 

 grain being a secondary consideration ; and I cannot say that 

 any thing has given me more satisfaction. I have tried it re- 

 peatedly, in the same fields and under all the same conditions as 

 nearly as possible, with all the other small grains; and it inva- 

 riably -gave far better results. I think that on my lands one 

 acre of barley affords as much green food during the winter as 

 the combined product of one acre each of wheat, oats and rye. 

 When grazed down, it grows again very soot,, so that it may be 

 grazed two or three times to once with the others. It makes 

 larger and more dense foliage and is greatly preferred by ani- 

 mals to the others. I think the barley decidedly more whole- 

 some also than the others. This is not due probably to the 

 chemical composition of the barley, but to its being cleaner. 

 The foliage stands up and hence does not become BO bespattered 

 with clay, sand and other injurious matters as that of other 

 small grains. With the latter much filth is eaten, especially 

 with rye. The leaf of this lies so closely on the ground, that in 



