Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-08-07
THE
Their Origin and Habitat-Growth In ScmL
Polar REGIONS,

AAANAA OAA6a - OH" SAA Al JILL
Polar Regions.
Recent numbers of Naturen contain
interesting papers by Professor
Schubeeer on the original habitat of
some of the cereals, and the subsequent
cultivation in the Scandinavian lands
and Iceland of barley and rye more es-
pecially. 1t would appear that barley
was cultivated before other cereals in
Scandinavia, and that the generic term
corn was applied among Mortimer
to this grain only from the Oldest
times, and that in the Norwegian laws
Of the seventeenth and eighteenth CEN
turtles wherever reference was made to
the ''kornskat''-or standard by which
land in the Northern lands was, and
still is, rated in accordance with the
corn lis capable of yielding-the term
vas understood to apply to barley.
Proof Of the high latitude to which the
cultivation was carried in early ages is
afforded by the Egll's Saga, where
mention is made of a barn in Hedge
land (sixty-five degrees N. lat.) used
for the storing of corn, and which was
80 large that tables could be spread
within it for the entertainment of 800
guests. In Iceland barley was cult
waited from the time Of its colonization
in $40 till the middle of the fourteenth
century, OF, according to Jon Storrason,
as lately as 400. From that period
down to our own times barley has not
been grown in Iceland with any sys-
tematic attention, the islanders being
dependent on the home country for
their supplies of corn. In the last CEN
turv, however, various attempts were
made both by the Danish Government
and private individuals to obtain home
grown corn in Iceland, and the success
with which these endeavors were at
tended gives additional importance to
the systematic undertaking, which has
been set on foot by DIR. Schubeler and
others within the last three years for
the introduction into the island OF the
harder cereals, vegetables and fruits.
AS many as 1872 samples OF seeds of
ornamental and useful plants, most of
which were collected from the neigh
borhood OF Christiania, are nov being
cultivated at ReYkiavik under the
special direction of the local Govern
ment doctor, Herr Schierbeck, who
succeeded in 1883 in cutting barley
n~inety-elght days after the sowing Of
the seed, which had come from Alien
go deg. N. lat.). And here it may be
observed that this seems the polar
limit in Norway for anything like good
barley crops. The seed is generally
sown at the end Of May, and in favor
able seasons it may be cut at the end
of August, the growth of the stalk
being often two and a half inches in
twenty-four hours. North Of 60 deg.
Or 81 deg, barley a not be success
fully grown in Norway at more than
from 1880 to 1000 feet above the sea
level. In Sweden the polar limit is
about GO deg. or 66 deg, but even there
as in Finland, night frosts prove very
destructive to young barley. In some
of the field valleys OF Norway, en the
other hand, barley may in favorable
seasons be cut eight or nine weeks after
its sowing, and thus two crops may be
reapeu in II summer. According
even to a tradition current i'll Thele-
markcn, a farm there owes it's name
Triset 60 the three crops reaped in the
land in one year. Rye early came into
use as a %breadstuft in Scandinavia. and
in 1890 She Norwegian Council of State
issued an ordinance making it obliga-
tory on every peasant to lay down a
certain proportion of his land in rye.
In Norway the polar limit of summer
rye is about 60 deg. and that of White.
rye abous 81 deg; but in Sweden it has
been carried. along the coast as far
north as IS deg. The summer rye
crops are generally sown and fit fox
cutting about the same time as barley,
although occasionally in southern Nor
way less shan ninety days are required
for their full maturity--NGture.