Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-09-29
Something About Barley.

lhlS genus OF grasses ranks in some
of the countries of Europe next to
wheat in value. There are many
species of what is termed barley
grasses, but the majority of them are
coarse, weedy plants of little or no
value to man. The grain known as
barley figures in the remote records of
both sacred and civil history, and has
been constantly cultivated from the
most ancient times till the present day.
In the days of Moses, IAN homer of
barley seed was valued at fifty shekels
of silver" Barley is mentioned in the
story of Naomi and Ruth, and in many
other places in the saoeed records.
Pliny gives such explicit descriptions
of barley as cultivated in his day that
there is no difficulty in recognizing it as
the same known and cultivated at the
present time. Columella mentions two
varieties as cultivatedin Italy, one called
hexasticum and the other distichum.
Cato, Palladios. Virgil and other
ancient writers speak Of this grain and
its value, giving full and explicit di-
rections for preparing the land and
sowing the seed. Varo says that six
madii of barley should be sown per acre,
which is equivalent to about two BUSH
els and two pecks of u measure.
The flowers of barley are arranged in
a compact spike in alternate order on
each side of a terminal rachis or stem.
They contain both stamens and pistils,
and for this reason are termed helma-
phrodite, the organs of fertility being
enclosed within two spalea, the inner
n closely investing the seed, and the
outer one unwrapping and folding over
the inner, and furnished with a long
avn or beard beset with three rows Of
acute bristles. Three palem constitute
a spikelet and two glumes belong to
each palee.
Although barley is usually regarded
cereals, it is cultivated over a very wide
range of country, often t1ourishing where
subject to great heat andlong droughts,
as well as in very moist and cool cli-
mates, far to the north. Owing to the
peculiar form of the flowers it is less
liable to blight from unfavorable wealth
or when in bloom than wheat. The
three filaments of the latter, with their
delicate anthers, are protruded and ex-
posed to every change in the weather,
but in barley these organs are masked
and protected by the floral integu-
ments.
Some writer's classify barley accord
ing to the time of sowing, making only
two divisions-spring and winter bar
ley. Others classify all varieties of bar
ley according to the number of rows of
grain in the ears, into six-rowed, four
rowed and two-rowed but the first two
are undoubtedly the same species, while
the last is distinct, as they have only
one spikelet at each Joint of the rachis
with a fertile flower, the two lateral
spikelets being reduced to a sterile rudi-
ment. The winter and spring barley
are often interchanged, and what is
strictly a spring variety in n country
or locality becomes a winter variety in
others. Attempts have also been made
to classify the varieties according to the
adhesion or non-adhesion of the corolla
with ripe seed, making the awned and
naked barley. Then there is what is
termed the fat-eared and square-eared
barleys. But for all practical purposes
the many varieties in cultivation may
DO referred to two species, namely,
Hordeuan vulg0re, four and six-rowed,
and II. dsstichum, two-rowcd barley.
The latter is supposed to be a native Of
Tartary. With a grain 81 long in cul-
tivation as barley, and in SO many diff
ferent countries and over such a wide
range of climate, it is not strange that
it should vary greatly from the original
types; hence the great number Of dis
tinct varieties in cultivation-M y
San,