CHAPTER XXIII 

 BARLEY 



BARLEY is the fourth cereal in importance in the United States, 

 but sixth in the world's crop of cereals (Chapter I). In the United 

 States it is exceeded by corn, wheat, and oats, and in the world both 

 rye and rice surpass it in production. Europe alone produces about 

 three-fourths of the world crop. 



The Production of Barley. The average barley crop of the 

 world for the five-year period, 1909-1913, is shown in the following 



table. 



Production of Barley by Continents, 1909-1913 



Continent Bushels 



Europe 1,063,957,000 



North America 237,079,000 



Asia 163,312,000 



Africa 51,876,000 



South America 7,61 1,000 



Australasia 4,402,000 



World crop 1,528,056,000 



The principal barley-producing countries (Fig. 60), together 

 with the average yield per acre, are shown in the next table: 



Average Yields of Barley by Countries 



Average yield Average yield 



per annum per acre 



Country 1919-1921 1909-1913 1919-192J 



Russia 1 372,856 16.1 



United States .... 162,707,000 23.8 22.6 



British India 132,115,000 ... 19.8 



Japan 90,464,000 28.1 31.1 



Germany 82,698,000 38.6 29. 



Canada 59,803,000 28.8 22.4 



United Kingdom . . 59,426,000 35.1 31.2 



1 Figures are for 1909-1913. 



Russia and the United States lead in barley production, as they 

 also do in wheat and oat production. The average yield per acre 

 is low in Russia, which is also true of her wheat and oat crop, but 

 the acreage is very large. It will also be noted that the average yield 

 per acre is decreasing in the principal countries. 



Barley in the United States. In the United States, barley cul- 

 ture is more concentrated in a few States than any other grain. The 

 five leading States produce about three-fourths of the crop. It takes 

 174 



