212 BULLETIIS' 1334, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGRICULTUEE 
DISTRIBUTION OF VARIETIES BY EXPERIMENT STATIONS 
It is obvious from the volume of the results reported that there 
has been a large expenditure of funds in the introduction, breeding, 
and testing of barley varieties in the United States and Canada. 
The question naturally arises as to how profitable this investment 
has been and to what extent the varieties so produced and so recom- 
mended are in cultivation to-day. A review of the situation leads 
to the conclusion that the investment has already been many times 
repaid and will continue to be repaid as long as barley is cultivated. 
Four basic types — (1) Coast, (2) a barley closely allied to the 
Manchuria, (3) Tennessee Winter, and (4) Stavropol — found their 
way into cultivation without the assistance of national or wState 
investigations. Coast was so well adapted to the Western States 
that for most of the period of experimentation it has been the variety 
recommended by experiment stations. It is only recently that 
superior sorts have Deen found for local conditions in the West. 
The introduction of Manchuria and Oderbrucker, which were tested 
and distributed by the stations, resulted in displacing the related 
form mentioned above as basic type No. 2. These varieties now 
constitute the greater part of the acreage of the upper Mississippi 
Valley and adjoining sections of Canada. 
Stavropol probably was imported by the Office of Foreign Seed 
and Plant Introduction of the United States Department of Agri- 
culture and was distributed by the Kansas Agricultural Experiment 
Station. It is more than plausible to assume, however, that this 
same barley was brought repeatedly from southern Russia by Rus- 
sian immigrants and that there was a large acreage of this type of 
barley in northwestern Kansas before any was sent out by the State 
station. 
In comparing the expense with the returns in barley studies it 
must be realized that the great bulk of the expenditure has been in 
the last few years. There has not been time to secure returns on 
those varieties recently produced. Club Mariout was brought to 
America in 1904. After years of testing it is just now becoming of 
commercial importance. There are many varieties still with a very 
limited acreage which have great potential importance. Trebi, now 
extensively grown in southern Idaho and the irrigated section of 
western Nebraska, is meeting with popular favor and is giving yields 
far greater than those of the varieties displaced. California Mariout 
is advantageously cultivated in parts of the San Joaquin Valle}^ 
which are too dry for high yields of Coast barleys. Many superior 
selections of Oderbrucker and Manchuria have been distributed in 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. Alpha, Horn, O. A. C. 21, 
Minsturdi, wSvansota, Featherston, and many more such new pro- 
ductions have yielded extremely well in recent tests and are now 
appearing in field agriculture. The potential value of such varieties 
in the next 10 years is very great. Back of these, on the field plats 
and breeding nurseries, are many others with which much of the work 
of breeding and testing has already been accomplished. 
