164 ORIGIN OF BARLEY. 



the barleycorn of the old linear measure. The average 

 weight per bushel is between fifty and fifty-one pounds. 



The native country of barley is as unknown as that 

 of wheat. There is a tradition among the Egyptians 

 that barley was the first grain used by mankind, and 

 they trace its introduction, as a cultivated plant, to the 

 goddess Isis. It was cultivated in Syria more than three 

 thousand years ago ; for we read that Ruth gleaned in 

 the field till evening, and beat out what she had, and it 

 was about an ephah of barley, and she gleaned till the 

 end of the barley harvest. 



The grasses referred by botanists to the same genus as 

 barley have a strong outward resemblance to it ; but 

 none of them, by any degree of culture, can be improved 

 so as to be of service as food, so that they give no in- 

 dication as to the origin of the grain in question; and 

 as we know it to have been used in Syria from a very 

 remote antiquity, it is natural to infer that it originated 

 in that country. There are four distinct species of 

 barley, and from these have arisen a great number of 

 varieties. 



The common barley, or the Hordeum vulgare, Fig. 

 136, is a spring species, and this is the kind most 

 commonly cultivated. It is six-rowed, the rows being 

 slightly irregular, the intermediate ones being a little 

 the most prominent. This is extensively cultivated in 

 Germany. It has passed into a six regular rowed 

 variety, which is a winter grain of a somewhat shorter 

 ear, and shells more easily when ripe, endures more 

 severe colds, and may be cultivated as a winter variety. 

 It is shown in Fig. 137. 



TWO-ROWED BARLEY (Hordeum distichum), Fig. 138, 

 is sometimes cultivated in this country. Its spike, or 

 ear, is long and somewhat compressed, and the grain is 

 of a very good quality. It is sown in spring. 



