190 
Tlie Quality of Barley. 
frequently commands a figure equal to that of wheat. As, moreover, 
the yield of barley per acre is about one-third more than that of 
■wheat, this is an additional argument in favour of barley. That 
which has been accomplished by the barley-growers of Bohemia and 
Moravia by careful cultivation, the selection of the best seed, and 
the judicious application of manures, is equally possible in France, 
where so much benefit has already resulted from the application of 
scientific principles to the culture of wheat and sugar-beet. But it 
is to the production of the best, and none but the best qualities of 
barley, that all efforts in the way of improvement should be directed. 
Having thus dealt with the subject in its general a.spects, 
M. Grandeau proceeds, in a subsequent memoir, to discuss a ques- 
tion of high practical interest, namely, as to how far it is expedient 
in the cultivation of barley to employ nitrate of soda as a fertiliser. 
A trade journal, the Revue industrielle cle la Brasserie et de la 
Malterie, commenting on the disastrous results produced in brewing, 
by the use of malt made from baidey in the manuring of which 
nitrate of soda has been employed, stated that brewers and maltsters 
were forming a league for the proscription of nitrate of soda, and for 
demanding a guarantee that barley offered for sale shall have been 
grown without the application of nitrate. The journal alluded to 
derives support for its contention from a case, recorded in the 
Chemiker Zeitung, in which one of the largest brewers of Heilbronn 
purchased a considerable quantity of barley grown upon a farm which 
enjoyed the reputation of producing excellent grain. The sample 
was, indeed, of fine marketable quality, and yet the first beer it 
yielded was of too inferior a character to be utilised. Some of the 
barley was therefore sent to Hohcnheim for analysis, with the 
result that the grain was declared to be too rich in nitrogenous 
matter for brewing purposes. The question then arose as to the 
origin of this excess, and it was suggested that nitrate of soda had 
been freely used in manuring the crop. Inquiry at the farm 
confirmed this suggestion. Eventually the brewer disposed of the 
barley by selling it at a heavy loss to a distillery. The case, says 
the Chemiker Zeitumj, is not an isolated one, nor, it adds, need it 
cause surprise. 
It is evident that M. Grandeau is somewhat sceptical as to the 
influence exercised by nitrate of soda, used as a fertiliser, upon the 
malting quality of barley. He mentions that there are scarcely more 
than a dozen recorded comparative analyses of the grain of cereals 
(wheat, barley, and rye) grown in. the same soil, with and without 
nitrate of soda. These, however, show a slight excess — ^from 0 96 
to 1 per cent. — of nitrogenous matter (protein) in the grain grown 
with nitrate. It is difficult to believe that this small difference in 
the percentage of nitrogenous ingredients can account for such 
unfortunate results as those at tiie Heilbronn brewery. 
Recognising the importance of the subject in farming districts 
devoted to the growth of malting barley, it is suggested tliat the 
problem be investigated in the field. Two adjoining areas, previously 
cultivated and manured in the same way throughout, should be 
