34 



THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



BARLEY 



Barley is the hardiest and one of the oldest 

 grains in cultivation. It will grow much farther 

 north than wheat; it is a staple crop in Norway, 

 Russia, and Siberia, where it grows right up to the 

 Arctic Circle. This is a grain from which the 

 bread of peasants is made; and people who scorn 

 to eat barley, drink it in the form of ale and beer. 

 The coarse, unleavened barley cakes of Scotland 

 are nutritious, but the grain is lacking in gluten, 

 a very important food element. Barley flour will 

 not make "risen bread" any more than cornmeal 

 will. But it has the whole nutritious grain, minus 

 only the hard cuticle. " Pearl barley" has lost 

 some valuable substance by the processes that 

 grind the kernel to a smooth, polished ball. . It is 

 chiefly used in soups and gruels. 



The great demand for barley comes from the 

 brewers, who use it in the making of beer. This is 

 the reason it is preferred to other grains: it is 

 quickest to sprout. The sprouting process changes 

 the starch of the kernels into a kind of sugar, 

 called maltose. 



The grain is first cleaned, then soaked and 

 spread out in a warm place to sprout. When the 

 little root is two-thirds the length of the grain, the 



