Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-04-14
Culture Of Barley.


Culture Of Barley.
There sperhaps no grain cultivated
in the United States that pays bette
for care bestowed upon it, nor on
that pays more indiferently for com
mon culture than barley. 1t may al
so be said with perfect truth tina
there are none of our cereals the tru'
conditions of culture of which SO lit
tie is known by the average farmer
Barley is especially tender, and al
SO delicate in its early growth. 1t il
also very sensitive to the effects of ;
wet soil, or one liable to become
soaked, and to hold water. 1t there
fore, can not be successfully grow
on stiff, heavy, wet soils, or those
that are cold, and tenacious in theil
texture. The value of barley con
sists in Its possessing thin skin Of
hull, and in being plump and brigh
when ready for market, Our ligh
dry, rich loans undoubtedly produce
the best qualities of barley. Poo
loans and sand, if warm and dry
with the addition of a good coat O
MANURE to the previous crop, also
give barley of superior quality
Our halle brush lands produce good
barley.
In the West we have comparative
ly little soil capable Of producing the
very finest quality Of barley, even il
our seasons were just suited to it
which they are not. They are apt
to be too hot and dry to produce the
best results. Nevertheless with oul
slight disabilities Of soil and climate,
good crops OF barley may be raised
on any Of our prairie loans that are
dry-ln fact, on any well drained
soil capable of producing good crops
of corn; and it is after this crop that
barley should be sown in the West
1t is sufficiently well known that
barley must have a mellow soil, and
one that has been brought into a fine
surface filth; and, that the best re.
suits are reached upon spring pillow.
ings; but the land must not IN any
event be plowed when wet, nor in.
deed, when the soil will not break
fine and friable, and without Jumps,
from The pillow share, Unlike wheat,
it is not the earliest sown that as a
rule produces best, but that sown at
a time when the soil can be brought
into the finest state of filth, and after
the hard frosts of spring have pretty
much disappeared. Spring wheat
should be sown on fall blowing, and
as soon in the spring as the soil can
be properly worked with a drill OF
harrow. Not so barley. 1t is too
tender and would inevitably be kill
ed. BY this we do not mean to say
that barley does badly on fall plow-
ing. The reverse is true; but the
land in this case should be worked
in the spring to the depth Of four
inches, before seeding, to loosen and
mellow the surface; and it should be
sown on clean land, and never imme-
diately succeeding wheat, oats or rye.
Potatoes are undoubtedly the best Of
our follow crops to preccdc barley.
But corn is not only the staple but
also the great fallow crop of the
West, and q most excellent one upon
which to fallow with barley.
Allowing, therefore, that you have
land that may be put liz proper con-
dition, after the season for sowing
oats, barley may be sown, at the rate
Of three bushels per acre if broad
cast, or from two to two and a half if
drilled. Many farmers SOW even as
light as two bushels per acre broad
cast. But thick seeding tends to
evenness in ripening in all the cereal
grain; with barley this is essential.
We should prefer three and half
bushels of seed per acre, or two and
a half bushels drilled on clean, rich
land, to less quantity. We might
show where five bushels have been
sown broadcast with the result Of
fifty bushels per acre; but fully as
good results will be obtained with
three bushels per acre. Either the
common two OF four rowcd varieties
may be used.
The principal objection with many
to the cultivation of barley, is the
trouble in harvesting and curing. 1t
is not a pleasant crop to handle, es-
pecially where it is to be bound. This,
however, we should never do. We
should let the crop get sufficiently
ripe SO the straw would cure easily;
divide it into moderate sized gavels
when reaping; turn once with Il bar
ley fork; set 1t in the windows like
buckwheat, and thresh Immediately
from the field, if sufficient space were
available in the barn to air and sea-
son the grain, by casting 1t from side
to side. If this plan be not available
it may economically be aired with a
tanning mill.
If it cannot be threshed Immediate
ly from the field, stack it in fair
weather, covering the top and sides
of the stack with slough hay, OF other
material that will surely shed water,
and thresh in about a month or six
weeks, or as soon as the stacks have
undergone the usual sweat.
The really difficult thing about
barley is harvesting and securing the
crop in good condition. If allowed
to get too ripe, it looks weather beat
Ell when threshed, even if the weather
is fine for curing it. fcut too green,
it gets weather beaten from dews,
and perhaps rain in curing - and
weather beaten barley never brings
the top price, however sound it may
be. If barn room is available, barley
should in every case be slowed there
in preference to any other crop, even
clover hay, for the barley once thresh
ed, the barn may then be filled with
the hay before the season is so far
advanced as to injurc 1t much from
rains. Nevertheless, it may be
cacurn1v stackn6 nc wo have shown