28 



BULLETIN 39, U. 8. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH BARLEY. 



PRODUCTION IN SOUTH DAKOTA. 



The production of barley in South Dakota has more than doubled 

 in the 10 years from 1903 to 1912. As with oats, this increased pro- 

 duction has resulted wholly from the increase in acreage, for the yield 

 per acre has remained practically the same. Table XII shows the 

 annual and average acreage, acre yield, and total production of barley 

 in South Dakota for the 10 years from 1903 to 1912, inclusive. 



Table XII. — Annual and average acreage, acre yield, and production of barley in 

 South Dakota for the 10 years from 1903 to 1912, inclusive. 1 



Year. 



Area. " 



Yield 



per acre. 



Production. 



Year. 



Area.- 



Yield 

 per acre. 



Production. 



1903 



Acres. 

 339,000 

 350,000 

 332, 000 

 790,000 

 875,000 

 928,000 



Bushels. 

 31.4 

 28.0 

 30.0 

 29.0 

 23.0 

 26.5 



Bushels. 

 10,656,000 

 9,788,000 

 9,962,000 

 22,910,000 

 20,125,000 

 24,592,000 



1909 



Acres. 



1,115,000 



1,050,000 



1,020,000 



887,000 



Bushels. 



20.1 



18.2 



5.4 



26.0 



Bushels. 



22,396,000 



19,110,000 



1904 



1910 



1905 



1911 



5,508,000 

 23,062,000 



1906 



1912 





Average. . 



1908 



768, 600 



23.8 



10,810,900 





1 Data supplied by the Bureau of Statistics, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Table XII shows that the average annual area devoted to barley 

 in South Dakota was 768,600 acres during the 10-year period, with 

 an average annual production of 16,810,900 bushels. The area in- 

 creased from 339,000 acres in 1903 to 1,115,000 acres in 1909; since 

 that time it has decreased somewhat, 887,000 acres being devoted to 

 the crop in 1912. The average acre yield has ranged from 5.4 bushels 

 in 1911 to 31.4 bushels in 1903; the average yield for the 10 years 

 was 23.8 bushels. If 16 bushels per acre will pay the cost of produc- 

 tion, the net profit on the barley crop during the 10 years has aver- 

 aged 48 per cent of this cost, and the season of 1911 is the only one 

 during the last decade in which the crop has not been profitable to 

 the State as a whole. While the cost of production varies from sea- 

 son to season and in different localities, this estimate indicates that 

 barley has been produced at a greater profit than either wheat or 

 oats. 



VARIETAL TESTS. 



Barley growing is a comparatively new industry in this State, 

 and relatively little attention has been given to the improvement 

 of the crop. The main essentials for the growing of better barley 

 are a better knowledge of varieties and greater care in preventing 

 mixtures. The object of the experiments here reported was to find 

 what improvement might be made by introducing better varieties 

 in place of the mixed barley commonly grown. It was first neces- 

 sary to make comparative tests to determine which varieties should 



