The QnaMij of Barley. 
189 
and oats, inasmuch as the sources of supply of the best imported 
barley are of comparatively limited area and production. The 
inferior qualities of barley (certainly an exceptionally large propor- 
tion of the growth of 1888), being generally consumed on the farms, 
are not included in these results, and the omission of their values 
increases pro tanto the stated average. Hence English barley, 
ranging thirty years ago from 35s. to 42s. per quarter, now compares 
with an average of about 26s. per quarter, whilst the Bavarian and 
French barleys are currently selling from about 48s. to 50s. per 
quarter in Mark Lane. I suggest, then, as a most important area 
for inquiry, the causes of this generally lowered character and 
quality of barley now, as compared witli that currently grown 
thirty years since. This degradation in quality cannot be tabulated, 
but my inquiries amongst corn-dealers, maltsters, and farmers, 
having experience of the last thirty years in all parts of England, 
tend to confirm the view that really hne, ' kindly,' samples of 
barley are now the exception where foi'merly they were the rule. 
" The seasons have not permanently changed, the efforts to 
obtain the best varieties and samples of seed are jJersistent, and 
every method and variation of cropping has been tried, and yet, as 
I have said, the Burton brewers and maltsters are paying 45s. to 50s. 
per quarter for the rare best English and foreign baideys, as against 
the miserable average of 25s. of our markets ! And no indisposition 
exists to use the home growths if, as formerly, good quality were 
obtainable in sufficient quantity." 
Tlie foregoing furnislics a practical view of the subject, as it 
concerns English growers. More recently it has been brouglit 
prominently and officially under the notice of French cultivators. 
In several of the memoirs in the Etudes ac/ronomiqites (1891), 
Professor L. Grandeau reverts to the matter, and his salient obser- 
vations are here placed at the disposal of English readers. 
The extension of the brewing industry, and the steadily in- 
creasing demand for beer on the part of the people of European 
countries, are facts commended to the consideration of the cultivators 
of France, a country in which the area under barley has been well- 
nigh stationary for a quarter of a century. The annual production 
of barley in France does not much exceed one-half that of Britain, 
whilst the average yield per acre in France is only about 57 per 
cent, of the corresponding yield in this country. M. Tisserand, 
Directeur de I'Agriculture, has endeavoured to account for this 
position of the barley-growing industiy in a country naturally well 
supplied with good barley soils. He instances three facts: (1) 
barley yields but little straw ; (2) for a long time barley grain had 
a value only about half that of wheat ; (3) not much beer is brewed 
in France. For these i-easons French growers have neglected barley, 
preferring to devote their energies to the cultivation of wheat, as 
being in France the more remunerative crop. But the conditions 
cited are no longer maintained. Every day prime samples of barley 
are more and more in request ; the price of barley, if only of medium 
quality, is three-fourths of that of wheat ; and good malting barley 
