The Quality of Barley. 
191 
sown with barley of choice quality, the one area receiving, however, 
nitrate of soda, and the other farm-yard manure. The grain from 
the crops should be delivered separately to a maltster, and the beer 
from the one would be compared with that from the other. 
Looking below the mere surface of the question, it is necessary to 
remember that by far the most important source of the nitrogen of 
the cereals is afforded by the nitrates contained in fertile soil. In 
whatever form, such as farmyard manure, dried blood, poudrette, 
shoddy, &c. nitrogen may be applied to the land, this element 
becomes available to crops only after the nitrogenous matter has run 
the gauntlet of the chemical changes which result in the production 
of a nitrate. These changes require for consummation varying 
periods of time, depending upon the temperature, the humidity, and 
the aeration of the soil, the nature of the raw manure, and so forth. 
But eventually the nitrate is produced. What, therefore, is the 
difference between applying nitrate of soda directly to the soil 
and waiting for the nitrification of crude organic matter 1 The 
difference is simply and solely one of time — the period necessary for 
nitrification is suppressed. There is, in effect, no change in the 
method of nutrition of the cereals. In the one case, as in the 
other, they acquire, in the state of nitrate, nitrogen needful to their 
development. It is true that the administration of the dose can 'jb 
more accurately timed in the case of nitrate of soda. It is under 
the genial influence of the warmth and the light of April and May 
that the vegetative growth of the cereals reaches its maximum 
intensity, and it is at this period that the cultivator puts at the 
disposal of the crop the largest quantity of immediately assimilable 
nutriment. 
Finally, M. Grandeau considers that judgment should be reserved 
till rigorous field experiment has demonstrated whether or not the 
brewing quality of barley is controlled by the nature of the fertilisers 
in which nitrogen is pi-esented to the crop. He therefore urges 
that this season, for the information and in the intei'est of agricul- 
turists, maltsters, and brewers alike, comparative experiments should 
be made. Upon one part of a field of barley nitrate of soda should 
be top-dressed as usual ; upon the other part no nitrate should be 
applied. The brewing qualities of the resulting samples of grain 
would then be tested and compared. 
It should be remarked that it is probable that brewers and their 
chemists know more about this matter than M. Grandeau suspects ; 
and it is, of course, possible that barley grown with too much farm- 
yard manure may prove as unfit for malting purposes as that grown 
with too liberal a dressing of nitrate. 
Significant as this problem may be to French barley growei'S, it is 
still more so to English cultivators. Attention is therefore directed 
to M. Grandeau's suggestions, and the season is yet sufficiently early 
for them to be put into operation in connection with the crop now 
occupying the land. 
