BARLEY. 



cultural experiments and improvements, sowed 

 a considerable portion of land with this barley, 

 and the result is said to have been perfectly 

 satisfactory. In 1833 two acres of Chevalier 

 barley were sown in the same field with some 

 of the best of the common barley. The soil 

 was poor, light sand, but in good order and 

 very clean. The produce of the whole was nearly 

 the same, 4 quarters per acre ; but the Cheva- 

 lier barley weighed 57 Ibs. per bushel, while 

 the common barley weighed only 52. This 

 gives the farmer an advantage often per cent. 

 The sample was very fine, and the wnole that 

 the cultivator could spare was eagerly pur- 

 chased by his neighbours for seed at his own 

 price. It is long in the ear, and very plump, 

 and the plant tillers so much, that half a bushel 

 of seed may be saved per acre. This is proba- 

 bly owing to its grains being all perfect, and 

 vegetating rapidly. The straw, like that of the 

 other long-eared barleys, appears weak in pro- 

 portion to the ear ; it is said also to be harder, 

 and not so palatable to cattle. These are cir- 

 cumstances which experience alone can as- 

 certain. That hitherto it has a decided supe- 

 riority over the common sorts, no one who has 

 tried it fairly in well-prepared lands seems to 

 deny." (Penny Cyr.) 



A new and seemingly very superior variety 

 has lately been introduced, called the Annat 

 barley. (See Quart. Journ. of Agr. vol. v. p. 

 618.) It is the produce of three ears which 

 were picked by Mr. Gorrie in a field in Perth- 

 shire, in the harvest of 1830, since which pe- 

 riod it has been grown at Annat Gardens, 

 thence its name. In 1834, it was sown on a 

 ridge in the middle of a field, with common 

 barley on the one side and Chevalier barley on 

 the other. In bulk of straw it seemed to have 

 the advantage of both these kinds ; it was five 

 days earlier ripe than the former, and about a 

 fortnight before the latter, and it was also 2 

 Ibs. per bushel heavier than the Chevalier. At 

 a meeting of the Stoke Ferry Farmers' Club, 

 in February of the present year (1841), it was 

 stated by one of the members, that the Cheva- 

 lier was decidedly the best stock for good bar- 

 ley land ; but for very poor soils he preferred 

 the Moldavian ; though, probably even this was 

 surpassed by the stock usually known as the 

 old field barley. The Annat barley was allud- 

 ed to by one gentleman who had tried it last 

 season ; but not having thrashed it, he could 

 only say that from its appearance it augured 

 well. He always adopted the drill system, 

 using wide, winged coulters, so as to disperse 

 the grain in the rows as much as possible, giv- 

 ing the field the appearance of having been 

 ploughed in. Very little difference of opinion 

 existed as to the superiority of the Chevalier 

 over any other variety, on the average of soils. 

 One member had grown 15 coombs an acre on 

 it; but he acknowledged it was on very excel- 

 lent land. A curious fact was elicited in con- 

 nection with this stock of barley ; which was, 

 that however much the crop might be laid and 

 beaten down, either by storms or its own weight, 

 the grain did not receive that injury to which 

 any other sort under similar circumstances 

 would be liable. (Brit. Farm.Mag.voLv.p. 190.) 



BARLEY. 



There can be no doubt of the general supe- 

 riority of the Chevalier as a malting barley. 

 Its introduction has occasioned a complete re- 

 volution in certain districts, where formerly no 

 such thing as malting barley was thought of. 

 It is one of the greatest improvements of mo- 

 dern times, and now commands a higher price 

 in the market than other barleys by two or 

 three shillings a quarter. 



Barley is evidently a native of a warmer cli- 

 mate than Britain ; for in this moist atmosphere 

 it is observed to degenerate, when either ne- 

 glected or on a poor soil. We have the best 

 authority for its having been cultivated in 

 Syria so long back as 3153 years; therefore 

 that part of the world may be fairly fixed as 

 its native soil. We find that the Romans ob- 

 tained barley from Egypt, and other parts of 

 Africa, and Spain. It was also grown in 

 France, as Columella calls one variety of bar- 

 ley Galaticitm. 



Barley, like all grains, is liable to diseases, 

 namely smut, the burnt ear, blight, and mil- 

 dew: for an account of which I must refer the 

 reader to these words. It is also apt to germi- 

 nate in the ear even before it is reaped, in wet 

 weather, giving the ear a singular appearance, 

 and renderinir the crniin, even when kiln-dried, 

 unfit for malting, and only of use to feed fowls 

 or pigs. The diseases of barley are not so nu- 

 merous or fatal as those of wheat. It is at- 

 tacked by the larvae of certain flies. The smut, 

 which attacks it in a partial degree, is gene- 

 rally the fungus uredo segetum. 



Barley is now extensively cultivated in most 

 European countries, in America, and in the 

 temperate districts of Asia and Africa. It may 

 also be raised between the tropics, but not at 

 a lower elevation than from 3000 to 4000 feet, 

 and then it is not worth cultivating. In Spain 

 and Sicily it produces two crops in the year. 

 Large quantities of barley have been for a 

 lengthened period raised in Great Britain. Re- 

 cently, however, its cultivation has been sup- 

 posed, though probably on no good grounds, to 

 be declining. In 1765, Mr. Charles Smith esti- 

 mated the number of barley consumers in 

 England and Wales at 739,000 ; and as a large 

 proportion of the population of Wales, West- 

 moreland, and Cumberland continue to subsist 

 chiefly on barley bread, I am inclined to think 

 that this estimate may not, at present, be very 

 wide of the mark. " Barley" (husked), says 

 Pliny, "was the most ancient food in old times, 

 as will appear by the ordinary custom of the 

 Athenians, according to the testimony of Me- 

 nander, as also by the surname given to the 

 sword fencers, who, from their allowance or 

 pension of barley, were called Hurdearii, ba'r- 

 I ley men." (Book xviii. chap. 7). It was not 

 until after the Romans had learned to cultivate 

 ! wheat, and to make bread, that they gave bar- 

 K v to their cattle. They made barley-meal 

 into balls, which they put down the throats of 

 their horses and asses, after the manner of fat- 

 tening fowls, which was said to make them 

 1 strong and lusty. 



There are no means of ascertaining whether 

 barley was cultivated in Britain when the Ro- 

 mans discovered that country ; but as Caesar 



141 



