250 DRY LAND FARMING 



GROWING BARLEY 



The barley crop ranks high among the crops that 

 will be grown in the semi-arid belt. This arises from 

 the fact: (1) that it furnishes varieties with adaptation 

 for brewing and other varieties specially well adapted 

 to the feeding of live stock ; (2) that it furnishes brew- 

 ing barley of the highest quality ; (3) that it matures 

 early in the season and before the weather reaches the 

 maximum of heat or drought, and (4) that it furnishes 

 a valuable forage that, in some of its varieties, may be 

 fed as hay in the unthreshed form, alone or in conjunc- 

 tion with other crops. It may also be made to furnish 

 good pasture for swine in case of need. This, at least, 

 is true of some of its varieties. It may be grown in some 

 areas by sowing both in the autumn and in the spring. 



Soils. Barley will grow in good form on many of 

 the soils of the dry west. The clay loam soils of the 

 Plains country are well adapted to its growth. With a 

 reasonable sprinkling of sand they are further improved. 

 The volcanic ash soils of the west have shown high 

 adaptation to the growth of barley. The same is true 

 of soils in the foothills of the mountains, which are rich 

 in humus. Soils low in adaptation are sands and gravels 

 that will soon lose their moisture supply. On the latter 

 the growth of straw is so light that the heads are small, 

 and the yields, also, are correspondingly small. 



Place in rotation. Barley, like wheat, may safely 

 follow the bare-fallow and also a cultivated crop. When 

 thus grown the yields are usually larger than those ob- 

 tained from wheat, and when of the brewing varieties 

 the price is frequently as high as that of wheat, because 

 of the high quality of the same. Where the rainfall 

 is reasonably liberal, barley may also be made the second 

 crop on well prepared land after summer-fallow, where 

 the rainfall is 15 inches and more. Barley, under certain 



