Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume I Part 74

_Var., Cult., &c._ Those princ.i.p.ally cultivated in England are--TWO'-ROWED, LONG'-EARED, or COMM'ON BARLEY (_hor'deum dis'tichon_, Linn.); SPRING'-BARLEY, SQUARE'-B., or BERE (_h. vulga"re_, Linn.); and SIX'-ROWED BARLEY, WINTER B., Scotch BERE or BIGG (_h. hexas'tichon_, Linn.). PUT'NEY, SPRAT, or BATT'LEDORE B. (_h. zeocriton_, Linn.), is another species less frequently met with. Of each of the above there are several varieties. In Spain and Sicily, two crops of barley are obtained in a year; but, in countries so far north as Britain, it produces only one, and is a delicate species of grain. In England it is generally adopted as a succession crop on light lands, following turnips or green crops. (Loudon.) The 'yield' per acre varies from 28 to 64 bushels, and is usually from 28 to 40 bushels. The average weight per bushel is 50 to 51 _lbs._; but the best Norfolk and Ess.e.x samples weigh 53 to 54 _lbs._ per bushel.

_Comp._ The leading const.i.tuents of barley are nearly similar to those of wheat, but it is scarcely so rich in nitrogenised matter. According to Einhof, the ripe SEEDS or GRAINS are composed of--

Meal 7005 Husk 1875 Moisture 1120 ------ 100

According to Johnston, average fine BARLEY-MEAL contains--

Starch 68 Alb.u.men, gluten, &c. 14 Fatty matter 2 Ash or saline matter 2 Water 14 ---- 100

According to Payen, dried barley possesses the following composition--

Nitrogenous matter 1296 Starch 6643 Dextrin 1000 Fatty matter 276 Cellulose 475 Mineral matter 310 ------ 10000

According to Dr Ure, the sp. gr. of ENGLISH BARLEY is 125 to 133 (average, 1235), and the weight of the husk is about 1-6th; that of BIGG, 1227 to 1265, and weight of husk, 2-9ths.

The a.n.a.lyses of the following varieties of barley, gave as the composition of the ashes of the grains:--

--------------------------------------------------- Unknown Chevalier From Chevalier Barley Moldavia Barley -------------+--------+---------+--------+--------- Potash 2114 2077 3755 770 Soda 456 106 036 Lime 165 148 121 1036 Magnesia 726 745 1017 126 Sesquioxide of iron 213 051 102 146 Sulphuric acid 191 079 027 299 Silica 3068 3273 2456 7077 Phosphoric acid 2853 3169 3864 199 Chloride of Sodium 110 147 110 ---------------------------------------------------

In the 'Journal of the Agricultural Society' for 1873 is a report by Messrs Lawes and Gilbert of twenty years' experiments with barley. The soil of a field at Rothampstead, in which the barley had been grown for twenty years, consisted of heavy loam, with a subsoil of clay resting on chalk, and was previous to the barley being planted almost exhausted by cropping. The produce was found to be greatest during the absence of drought and sudden alterations of temperature, the rather cool but uniform season of 1854 giving the heaviest crops. The yield from farm-yard manure and nitrate of soda was found in dry seasons to be rather larger than that from ammonia salts. Barley manured with phosphates was found to ripen one to two weeks earlier than when the phosphate was omitted.

The average produce per acre of a few of the princ.i.p.al plots is given below. The "ammonium salts" are stated to be a mixture of equal parts of sulphate and chloride; the "alkali salts" consist of the sulphates of pota.s.sium, sodium, and magnesium; the "cinerials" consist of alkali salts, plus superphosphate:

KEY: A: Dressed Corn.

B: Straw and Chaff.

C: Total Produce.

D: Corn to 100 Straw.

E: Weight per Bushel of Dressed Corn.

F: Produce of second 10 yrs. over or under first 10 yrs.

-----------------------------+--------+------+----+----+----+-------- Manures per Acre. A B C D E F -----------------------------+--------+------+----+----+----+-------- bushels. cwts. lbs. lbs. per cwt.

Unmanured 20 11-3/4 2454 866 523 - 236 Mixed cinerials 27-1/2 14-3/8 3162 964 534 - 202 Ammonium salts, 200 lbs. 32-1/2 18-1/2 3919 892 521 - 97 Ammonium salts, 200 lbs., and alkali salts 35 20-3/4 4317 863 528 - 53 Ammonium salts, 200 lbs., and superphosphate 47 27-5/8 5760 868 535 + 27 Ammonium salts, 200 lbs., and cinerials 46-1/4 28-1/2 5817 832 540 - 3 Rape cake (mean 1300 lbs.) 45-1/4 26-7/8 5571 873 538 Farmyard manure, 14 tons 48-1/4 28-1/4 5933 885 543 + 148 -----------------------------+--------+------+----+----+----+--------

The authors direct attention to the results obtained by using the cinerial manure alone, as ill.u.s.trating the unsoundness of the old "mineral theory,"

according to which plants were supposed to possess a sufficient source of nitrogen in the atmosphere. They found a greater crop yielded by barley than wheat, when no manures were employed, as well as when cinerials were employed, a fact which they attribute to barley being better able than wheat to supply itself with nitrogen, notwithstanding the deeper roots of the latter. They state that with both wheat and barley the produce is slowly falling off under these circ.u.mstances. With ammonium salts alone, and with nitrate of sodium alone, there is much less falling off than when no nitrogenous manure is used. The falling off was least with the nitrate.

The nitrate gives a rather larger crop for the same amount of nitrogen supplied, and they found this to hold when both nitrate and ammonia are applied with cinerials. The addition of superphosphate to ammonium salts or sodium nitrate greatly increases the produce; the further addition of pota.s.sium, sodium, and magnesium salts they found almost without effect.

The inference was that the barley had obtained an ample supply of potash from the natural soil, but an insufficient supply of phosphoric acid.

When ammonium salts are used alone, and the quant.i.ty of ammonia does not exceed 50 lbs. per acre, 368 lbs. of ammonia will yield an average increase of 1 bushel of corn and 63 _lbs._ of straw--total, 115 _lbs._; the extremes in 20 years were 225-1805 _lbs._ When ammonium salts are applied with superphosphate, 221 _lbs._ of ammonia will produce the same result; the extremes were 147-536 _lbs._

Silicate of sodium had been applied for eight years and a half to half the barley plots receiving ammonia; no increase has resulted where ammonia and superphosphate are employed; but on the other three plots an increase had taken place, which, in the case of the plot receiving only ammonia and alkali salts, is very considerable.

The authors think this irregular reaction seems to show that the silicate has not produced its effect by furnis.h.i.+ng silica to the crop, but by some reaction upon the plant-food of the soil. The rape cake supplied much more nitrogen than the ammonium salts, and also some phosphates and potash.

Rape cake alone gives a better return than either ammonium salts or sodium nitrate applied alone; but when the three manures are mixed with superphosphate, the results for equal amounts of nitrogen show the rape cake to be decidedly inferior. From the above experiments it is inferred that a supply of carbonaceous matter does not increase the crop of barley.

A farm-yard manure containing about 064 per cent. of nitrogen supplied far more plant food than any of the other manures. On an average of twenty years it was found that about 8 lbs. of ammonia in the form of dung would produce a bushel of barley, with its equivalent of straw.

In all cases which were comparable it was found that barley appropriates more of the nitrogenous manure than wheat, save with farmyard manure. A large amount of nitrogen applied by manure is not taken up by the crop.

Experiments in the barley field proved that large residues from ammonium salts and sodium nitrate show a small but distinct effect upon succeeding crops, the influence extending over many years. From an examination of the drainage waters from lands dressed with the nitrates of ammonium and sodium, the authors conclude that ammonium salts, as well as sodium nitrate, will be more economically applied in the spring than in the winter. Manures containing organic nitrogen are clearly not so liable to loss from drainage.

Experiments were made on the growth of barley after turnips, and also in an ordinary four-course rotation. After growing turnips ten years consecutively with purely cinerial manures, and carting off the produce, the yield of barley was much smaller than in the experimental field, where barley was grown after barley. The turnips, though very small crops, had exhausted the soil of nitrogen to a greater extent than corn crops would have done. On one plot where rape cake had been applied to the turnips, the produce of barley was 8-1/4 bushels more than when none had been used.

In the rotation experiments barley was grown after turnips (carted off), and was followed by beans and wheat. In one series all the crops were unmanured; in another the turnips received superphosphate; in a third the turnips received an abundant cinerial and nitrogenous manure.

The mean produce of the six crops of barley obtained in twenty-four years of rotation was as follows:

------------------------------------------------ Dressed Straw and Character of Rotation. Corn. Chaff.

--------------------------+---------+----------- bushels. cwt.

Unmanured continuously 38-3/8 21-3/4 Superphosphate for turnips only 29-3/8 16-1/2 Mixed manure for turnips only 44-3/8 25-1/4 --------------------------+---------+----------- Mean produce of unmanured } barley in barley } 21-1/2 12-1/8 field during the same } season } ------------------------------------------------

The unmanured turnips were so very small in quant.i.ty, that the barley in the first series was practically grown after a fallow; this barley, however, was a much larger crop than that grown after turnips manured with superphosphate only, the available nitrogen of the soil in this case being exhausted by the turnips.

In the last series the residue of the abundant manure applied to the turnip crop suffices to produce a good crop of barley.

_Qual., Uses, &c._ Its employment and value as food, and in the manufacture of malt, are well known. It forms good wholesome bread well adapted for persons who live luxuriously; but which, for the abstemious and the delicate, is inferior to that made of wheat, as it is rather less nutritious, and less easy of digestion, and commonly proves laxative to those unaccustomed to its use. Barley-flour and barley-meal are also more perishable than wheat-flour; being very apt to acquire a hot nauseous taste, which even the heat of the oven does not remove. In a medical point of view, barley is regarded as the mildest and least irritating of the cereals. It has always been in high estimation as a demulcent and emollient. The decoction (BAR'LEY-WATER), made with pearl barley, is a common and useful drink in inflammatory diseases, particularly in those of the chest and urinary organs. Among the Ancients, decoctions of barley (??a??) were the princ.i.p.al aliments and medicines employed in acute diseases.

Barley was extensively cultivated by the Romans and many other nations of antiquity, as well as by the ancient inhabitants of Gaul. The Greeks are said to have trained their athletes on it.

The best tests of the genuineness of barley are its colour, freedom from dust, grit, and insects. The microscope will lead to the detection of any cheaper grains if mixed with it. It is rarely adulterated, although it is said to be extensively used for the purpose of sophisticating wheat, annatto, and roll liquorice.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Barley Starch.]

=Barley, Cau'stic.= Sabadilla.

=Barley, Pat'ent.= _Syn._ FARI'NA HOR'DEI, L. Pearl barley reduced to fine powder by grinding in a mill.

=Barley, Pearl.= _Syn._ PEARL'ED BARLEY*; HOR'DEUM DECORTICATUM (B. P.), L.; ORGE PERLe, Fr.; PERLENGRAUPEN, Ger. The seeds of _hordeum distichon_ deprived of the husks. That of commerce is usually made by steaming spring-barley, to soften the skin, then drying it, and grinding it in a mill with the stones set wide apart, so as to round and polish the grains, and to separate the whole of the husk except that left in the furrow of the seed. SCOTCH PEARL-BARLEY and FRENCH BARLEY resemble the last, but are smaller, being generally made from winter-barley or bigg. FARO DE ORZO is another variety made from sprat-barley. See BARLEY (_above_).

=Barley, Scotch.= _Syn._ HULLED BARLEY, POT-B.; HOR'DEUM MUNDA'TUM, L.; ORGE MONDe, Fr.; GERSTENGRAUPEN, GRAUPEN, Ger. The grains deprived of the husk by a mill, as noticed above, but less completely, and without rounding them.

=BAR'LEY SUGAR.= See CONFECTIONERY, and SUGAR.

=BARM.= See YEAST.

=BAROM'ETER= (_baros_, weight; _metron_, measure). _Syn._ WEATHER-GLa.s.s; BAROM'ETRUM, L.; BAROMeTRE, Fr.; BAROMETER, WETTERGLAS, Ger. An instrument for measuring the weight or pressure of the atmosphere. It was invented by Torricelli, of Florence, A.D. 1643.

The barometer is made of several forms, but the principle of its construction, with the exception of the aneroid barometer, is the same in each, and essentially consists of a column of fluid (usually mercury) supported in vacuo, in a gla.s.s tube, by the pressure of the atmosphere on its surface. The annexed figures exhibit the princ.i.p.al varieties at present known; several of which have been proposed with the view of improving the original instrument, either by increasing its range, or its portability. None, however, equal in simplicity, cheapness, and usefulness, the old forms proposed by Torricelli, and represented by the figs. 1 & 2. To avoid confusion, the graduated scales and cases of the instruments are not shown.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

1. Torricelli's cistern barometer.

2. " syphon "

3. Huygen's barometer.

4. " " modified.

5. Wheel barometer.

6. Bernoulli's syphon barometer.

7. Aminton's conical "

8. Gay Lussac's "