Yield of Grain per Acre in Bushels Average Sixteen Years. Salt and gypsum both appear to have increased the yield of barley, but to have had less influence on the oats and wheat. Barley appears more dependent on the manurial supplies within the surface soil, probably on account of its shorter period of growth and more limited range of roots. For the same reason, soluble fertilizers, where needed, appear the most effective. 1 Phosphorus applied in untreated phosphates. XXII. BARLEY. 456. 1. CULTURAL METHODS. Preparation of Seed Bed.-A well prepared seed bed is desirable if not essential for barley. To this end the land should be plowed and the seed bed deeply and thoroughly pulverized. Fall plowing is preferable in order to secure early preparation of seed bed and early seeding. The same principles apply to depth of seeding as in wheat, oats and maize. The Minnesota Station obtained higher yields from sowing three-fourths inch deep than from deeper seeding, and one and one-half inches than either deeper or shallower seeding in another instance.1 At the Manitoba Station better results were obtained at two inches than at shallower or deeper seeding. Much barley is sown broadcast, although the Ontario Agricultural College has found best results from drilling. For malting purposes it is desirable that every plant be grown and matured under as uniform conditions as possible. Doubtless drilling will promote this end. In some instances increased yields of grain have been obtained by mixing barley with other grains, such as oats. (404) In no case should two and six-rowed varieties of barley be mixed if their crop is to be used for malting, because of different lengths of time required for germination. Barley may be mixed with field peas in place of oats for sowing after July first, because the former is better adapted to growing during the warm weather. Early seeding of barley with field peas is less 1 Minn. Buls. 31 and 40. 2 Can. Expt. Farms Rpt. 1900. 3 8 Ont. Agr. Col. and Expt. Farms Rpt. 1898. desirable than oats with field peas on account of the weakness of the straw. 457. Rate of Seeding.-Wide variations in rate of seeding, ranging from one and one-half to four bushels of seed per acre, have given the best results in different trials. Two bushels is the usual quantity of seed sown per acre. It seems probable, however, that seeding at the rate of ten pecks per acre will give the best average results. The number of seeds per bushel is usually rather less than in wheat and oats. Barley tillers less strongly than oats, and also less strongly at least than winter wheat. Seeding thinly enough to induce excessive tillering may cause irregular and later ripening. 458. Time of Sowing. The Central Experimental Farm, at which the conditions correspond to those of Ontario and Quebec, sowed two varieties of barley at six weekly periods for ten years, beginning each year as early as the land was fit to receive the seed. Seeding either the first or second week gave the best results. The decrease in yield after the second week was marked. In these provinces seeding usually should be finished before May first. The Ontario Agricultural College obtained best results every year during four years between April 22 and 25. Early sowing was not found so important for the Maritime Provinces, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories or British Columbia. The seeding should be finished in these provinces generally between May 15 and 25.1 1 The barley plant when young is rather more susceptible to cold than wheat and possibly than oats. A light frost just after it is up is likely to injure it. In the spring wheat regions barley is generally sown after wheat is sown, and before oats are sown, although in some sections barley is sown after oats. It is probable that oats would suffer more than barley from a few days' delay in seeding. At the Minnesota Station the difference in 1 Can. Cent. Expt. Farms Bul. 21; Can. Expt. Farms Rpt. 1899; Ont. Agr. Col and Expt. Farms Rpt. 1898. favor of early seeding of barley was much less than with spring wheat, oats and flax.1 The Tennessee Station found September decidedly the best month for the fall seeding of barley. 459. Seed Selection.-The Ontario Agricultural College has obtained an average for six years of fifty-four bushels from sowing large plump seed; fifty bushels from small plump seed; forty-six bushels from shrunken seed, and forty-three bushels per acre from sowing broken grains produced by the usual process of threshing.3 The Tennessee Station sowed large seed that were twenty-eight per cent heavier than small seed, and obtained fifty bushels from the larger seed and forty bushels per acre from the small seed. The weight of the individual grains was, however, practically identical in both cases. Large grains from large heads gave a larger yield of grain than from medium or small heads.* 460. Harvesting. Barley that has been allowed to ripen. fully will be likely to have the most mealy endosperm, and most likely to sprout uniformly. On the other hand, if allowed to ripen fully, there is more danger of discoloration from rain and dews, and as this character is counted so important in fixing the commercial grade, early cutting is frequently practiced. If bundles are shocked promptly and shocks are carefully capped with two bundles, ripening may proceed, and both ends -full maturation and bright color-be measurably secured. (160) Formerly the barley crop was usually cut with a self-rake reaper and laid off in small gavels or in continuous swaths. These were allowed to dry a day or so, as required, and then raked together, or, more usually, placed in piles by hand with a large wooden, four-tined fork. The aim was to get the barley 1 Minn. Bul. 40, p. 282. 2 Tenn. Bul. Vol. XIV, No. 3, p. 6. 3 Ont. Agr. Col. and Expt. Farms Rpt. 1903, p. 119. Tenn. Bul. Vol. XIV, No. 3. dry as quickly as possible, so that it might be subject as little as possible to the rains and dews before reaching the stack. The severity of the beards and the shortness of the cuhms made it almost impossible to bind by hand. With the self-binder, it is the easiest of our cereal crops to bind. The shocking is now the most unpleasant operation. Barley of as good color is not obtained ordinarily when the sheaves are bound as when they are left open, chiefly because it is necessary to allow it to be long exposed to the weather before stacking or threshing. Considerable improvement in color may be effected by threshing the cap sheaves separately, and using the grain from them for food for domestic animals. 461. Threshing.-Pieces of broken grains containing no embryos are valueless for the production of malt, since their contents do not become soluble. Moreover, they are harmful, since such grains become covered with mould, serving as a center of infection to the sprouting grains, and thus injuring the malt. Grains that have the ends of the hulls broken off too closely; a portion of the hull peeled off; or grains that are merely bruised, although germinating, are also liable to be attacked with mould. Special care should be taken, therefore, in threshing barley, not to break or bruise the grains. It is better to leave a little of the beard on than to injure the grains. This will reduce the weight per bushel, but maltsters are coming to recognize that high weight per bushel is less important than injured grains, and that no harm results from leaving Portion of spike of barley, showing the influence of threshing upon perfect grains. Assuming the cylinder to strike the spike in the direction AB, beards on left will be broken off properly, while those on the right may carry a part of the husk or flowering glume with them. (After Baird.) on a little of the beard. Care should be taken to regulate the number and closeness of the concaves of the threshing machine and not to run the cylinder at too high a rate of speed. Since |