28 
BULLETIN" 39, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH BARLEY. 
PRODUCTION IN SOUTH DAKOTA. 
The production of barley in South Dakota has more than doubled 
in the 10 years from 1903 to 1912. As with oats, this increased pro- 
duction has resulted wholly from the increase in acreage, for the yield 
per acre has remained practically the same. Table XII shows the 
annual and average acreage, acre yield, and total production of barley 
in South Dakota for the 10 years from 1903 to 1912, inclusive. 
Table XII. — Annual and average acreage, acre yield, and production of barley in 
South Dakota for the 10 years from 1903 to 1912, inclusive. 1 
Year. 
Area. 
Yield 
per acre. 
Production. 
Year. 
Area. 
Yield 
per acre. 
Production. 
1903 . 
Acres. 
339,000 
350,000 
332,000 
790,000 
875,000 
928,000 
Bushels. 
31.4 
28.0 
30.0 
29.0 
23.0 
26.5 
Bushels. 
10,656,000 
9,788,000 
9,962.000 
22,910,000 
20,125,000 
24,592,000 
1909 
Acres. 
1,115,000 
1,050.000 
1,020.000 
8S7,000 
Bushels. 
20.1 
18.2 
5.4 
26.0 
Bushels. 
22,396,000 
19,110.000 
5,508,000 
23,062.000 
1904... 
1910 
1911 
1905 
1906 
1912.. 
1907 
Average. . 
1908 
768, 600 
23.8 
16,810,900 
1 Data supplied by the Bureau of Statistics, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
Table XII shows that the average annual area devoted to barley 
in South Dakota was 768,600 acres during the 10-year period, with 
an average annual production of 16.810.900 bushels. The area in- 
creased from 339.000 acres in 1903 to 1,115.000 acres in 1909; since 
that time it has decreased somewhat, 887.000 acres being devoted to 
the crop in 1912. The average acre yield has ranged from 5.4 bushels 
in 1911 to 31.1 bushels in 1903; the average yield for the 10 years 
was 23.8 bushels. If 16 bushels per acre will pay the cost of produc- 
tion, the net profit on the barley crop during the 10 years has aver- 
aged 18 per cent of this cost, and the season of 1911 is the only one 
during the last decade in which the crop has not been profitable to 
the State as a whole. While the cost of production varies from sea- 
son to season and in different localities, this estimate indicates that 
barley has been produced at a greater profit than either wheat or 
oats. 
VARIETAL TESTS. 
Barley growing is a comparatively new industry in this State, 
and relatively little attention has been given to the improvement 
of the crop. The main essentials for the growing of better barley 
are a better knowledge of varieties and greater care in preventing 
mixtures. The object of the experiments here reported was to find 
what improvement might be made by introducing better varieties 
in place of the mixed barley commonly grown. It was first neces- 
sary to make comparative tests to determine which varieties should 
