1 Dec., 1897.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 433 
The Growing of Malting Barley. 
Tire following hints on harvesting the crop of malting barley we take from the 
Warwick Examiner and Times. Mr. Redwood’s remarks will prove useful to 
those farmers who propose next season to devote attention to this crop :— 
HINTS ON HARVESTING THE CROP. 
_ Some months since, Mr. Y. C. Redwood, of Toowoomba, read a very 
interesting paper to the local agricultural society on the subject of growing 
barley for malting purposes on the Darling Downs. Several farmers in this 
district have barley crops this season, and the following extracts from the 
paper should be interesting to them, especially as the crop is on the point of 
maturing. On the matter of 
CUTTING 
Mr. Redwood, who is a man of practical experience, and as a maltster, is 
able to speak with authority, says—The crop may have passed through all its 
stages of perfection up to the cutting. Barley is not like wheat or oats, which 
have sufficient nutritive powers in the straw to develop the grain if cut a little 
on the green side. Barley, on the other hand, must be ripe before it is cut; 
if cut on the green side, the grain will shrink, consequently it cannot be 
classed as prime malting, as trom its flinty and steely nature it cannot possibly 
give the extract peculiar from ripe or mellow barley. At the same time it 
must be borne in mind that to leave the crop standing too long in a ripe state 
will result in a great loss by the grain shaking out. The principle of cutting 
barley is this: That as soon as it becomes hard it should be cut immediately, 
or as soon as possible, as barley over-ripe is almost as bad as being green when 
{. 
om STOOKING. 
The barley should be stooked as soon as possible, as a shower of rain 
would greatly discolour it if left on the ground. Farmers should be very 
careful to see that it is well stooked. 
FIELDING. 
This is a feature that should not be neglected, as you can improve a 
sample of barley in the field. Jf the season is favourable a fortnight is not 
too long, as a slight rain and the dew tend ina great measure to mellow it. 
Of course, during unfavourable seasons the farmer must exercise great care, and 
on no account allow the grain to be stacked until thoroughly dry. The fact 
of its being slightly discoloured under these circumstances will not affect the 
quality of the barley. 
STACKING. 
This is a point that requires great care, more so than in any of the.other 
white crops. ven in the best of seasons and in bad years it is often found 
very difficult to save it, It should never be carted unless it is perfectly dry, 
otherwise it is in danger of being heated in the stack or becoming mow-burnt, 
which makes*it absolutely useless to the maltster, for the undue action of the 
heat destroys the germinating power of the grain, which consequently will not 
malt. It will be prudent therefore not to stack barley until the heat of the 
sun has evaporated the dew. For about one month in the stack a certain 
degree of fermentation or sweating is created which assists to sweeten or 
mellow the grain, and barley should never be thrashed until it has remained 
in the stack at least six weeks or two months. In building a stack the proper 
way is to build from the middle of your centre or square in the form of a 
