Ba/rley from a Maltster's Point of View. 
501 
Pacific ports of tlie United States with 180,000, then France 
with over 160,000, then Sweden with over 150,000, and then 
the Austro-Hungarian Empire with under 100,000. A con- 
siderable proportion of all these barleys are purchased for 
malting purposes, and there can be no doubt therefore that 
foreign barleys are now more largely used in malting than 
formerly, though, unfortunately, no statistics are available to 
show to what extent this is the case. The excise authorities at 
Somerset House keep a return of the quantity of malt and sugar 
annually consumed in brewing, which I append, but there are 
no means of ascertaining what proportion of the malt owes its 
origin to home-grown and what to foreign barley respectively : 
Malt and Com 
in Quarters. 
1887 G,.539,027 
1886 0,484,884 
1885 G,480,]86 
1884 6,601,695 
1883 6,416,431 
1882 5,848,070 
1881 6,487,405 
1880 5.136,559 
(9 months' return) 
1879 6,447,111 
1878 7,344,116 
Sugar in Tons. Equal Qr3. of Malt, 
at 2 cwt. per Qr. 
73,297 732,970 
66,347 663,470 
64,279 442,790 
, 59,304 593,040 
56,307 563,070 
57,109 571,090 
, 56,267 562,670 
, 66,029 660,290 
52,000 520,000 
56,000 560,000 
I have already mentioned that some of the Saale, Austrian, 
and Hungarian barleys are of excellent quality, and as an 
illustration of what may be done by determined effort in the 
matter of seed selection and cultivation, I would refer especially 
to the marked improvement that has taken place of recent years 
in Danish barleys, a large proportion of which now take rank 
with the average of English gi-owths for malting purposes. 
Only a few years ago the barley production of Denmark was 
practically confined to a coarse thick-skinned native grain 
suitable only for distilling or grinding, and the change is mainly 
due to the energetic action of the Danish Royal Agricultural 
Society, with the assistance of the Government. In 1883 a 
committee of the Society was formed to ascertain by what means 
of cultivation, &c., the best possible quality of barley, yielding 
the greatest commercial value, might be obtained, and a sub- 
vention of 300L per annum was granted by the State to the 
Society for this purpose. The committee accordingly distributed 
some 800 lots of seed, each consisting of half a hundred- 
weight of fine " Chevalier " barley, to farmers in districts where 
it was found that barley could be profitably grown. The con- 
<litioji was imposed upon every recipient that he should report 
