4 A NEW BASIS FOR BARLEY VALUATION AND IMPROVEMENT. 
of these questions along new lines. Mr. David F aire! did has believed 
for some time that a thorough study of the internal structure of the 
barley grain should afford better knowledge than that hitherto 
secured of the location of the various constituents of the grain and 
especially of the location within the grain of those energies that 
bring about the changes included in the artificial process called malt- 
ing and the 1 natural process called germination. The valuable dis- 
coveries made by Dr. N. A. Cobb in his morphological studies of 
wheat a strengthen the belief that the functions of barley, included 
in its malting processes, however complicated, are referable to some 
structural parts as their source and are correlated with deiinite 
organs. The writer therefore undertook a careful study of the 
internal mechanism of the barley grain as to the structural changes 
that take place during its successive steps in malting. 
To do this, modifications in laboratory technique have had to be 
worked out and methods discovered that would give the best results 
in killing, fixing, sectioning, staining, etc., this refractory material 
so as to fit it for microscopic study. The object of this article is 
merely to give a brief sketch of the work so far accomplished and to 
announce a new basis for barley valuation. 
The first task undertaken was to investigate anew the work per- 
formed by the different parts of the grain. This was necessary 
because, although an enormous amount of study lias been given to 
this subject, there is no unity of opinion to be found in the reports 
published. To take an example: it has long been known thai the 
peculiar part of the embryo barley plant called the scutellum is an 
absorbing organ, which seizes upon the food supply stored in the resl 
of the grain and transfers it to the growing parts, the young root sys- 
tem and the stem. The shape and position of this organ suggesl 
such a use to even an untrained observer, its broad, flat surface is 
pressed close against the large, stored-up mass of starch, called the 
endosperm, which forms the bulk of the grain; anil when germination, 
or its modified form called malting, has been going on for three or 
I'oui' days it is easy to see that the starch endosperm, especially that 
portion lying nearest the scutellum, is disappearing and that at the 
same time the embryo plant has commenced growth. It is evident 
that the scutellum is absorbing the starch ami transferring it to the 
plant. But this can not be effected without certain preliminary 
changes. The walls of the starch-containing cells must firsl be broken 
down and the starch grains must then be changed into a liquid state 
l>\ conversion into sugar, dextrin, or some such soluble correlative 
before t he scutellum can absorb this supplj and convey it to the plant. 
a Published by the Department of Agriculture of New Smith Wales under the title 
" I traversal Nomenclature of Wheat." 
r. 101 
