ANNUAL REPORT—AGRICULTURE. 
19 
Barley requires a moist climate and an extended season to 
insure its success; and accordingly, it can hardly be expected 
to do so well, either in yield or quality, here as in the more 
' favorable climate of England. Still, in view of the fair average 
we are able to get even in Wisconsin, the growing demand for 
it to use for malting purposes consequent upon the rapid in¬ 
crease of the beer-drinking population, and the high price it 
bears in proportion to the other cereals that require equal op¬ 
portunities in the way of soil and cultivation, it is rather sur¬ 
prising that more of it is not grown. 
In some of the states the increase of its production has been 
greater than of any other crop since 1860, but this appears not 
to be true of it in Wisconsin, notwithstanding the large foreign 
population, always accustomed to the use of malt liquors. 
BUCKWHEAT 
Is another crop that finds comparatively little favor in this 
state, although the actual increase of its production and the 
rate per cent of increase have greatly advanced since the date 
of the census of 1860. 
Bushels. 
Product of the crop of 1859.. 88,987 
Product of the crop of 1869. 418, 897 
Rate per cent., of increase, 964. 
* 
These figures are hardly a fair test of the increase in the pro¬ 
duction cf this crop, for the reason that the crop of 1859 was 
an unusually short one—shorter, indeed, than that of ten years 
before, which was reported in the census as being 79,878 bush¬ 
els. 
The increase for the whole country during the years 1850 to 
1860 was greater than that of any other grain crop, and the 
belief is that it has continued during the past ten years. 
Having a very wide range of adaptations as to soil, though 
succeeding best on those which are moist and rich ; coming 
later in its seed time than the other crops, so that it can even 
follow them the same season ; being suited to seasons too wet 
for the successful growth of other crops, and hence to supply 
their deficiencies ; being a rampant grower and a good cleanser 
