The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-02-28
Bert Ball Gave An illustrated
Talk Last Night
Choral Society Aided In Very
Fine Program
Professor Bull Spoke Today;
Features Of Meet

Through no fault of the officers Of
the Corn Growers and Crop Breed
ers' association, the program which
was scheduled for the meeting this
afternoon was considerably shattered.
Professor r. A. Moore of Madison,
Wis, who was scheduled to speak
was not able to be present and was
represented by A. l.. Stone of Madi-
son. E. +. Funk of Bloomington, H.,
was detained by illness and had no
substitute. Mr.. Funk was to have
spoken Oh Ten Years Work With
Corn" Professor Bull gave his adj
dress on Minnesota Varieties and
Improvement"
II. NJ. Green presided this after
noon.
Mr.. Stone was the first speaker.
Barley Improvement in Wiscon.
sin" was the topic chosen by Mr..
Stone. He said:
"How many thousand years OF
breeding had been put upon the bar
ley plant before it's introduction into
this country and into Wisconsin it is
impossible to say, for its use by
human beings antedates history. Bot.
onists tell us that our cultivated bar
legs have been developed through
long years of selection from the
common weedy grass known as squir-
rel tail or wild barley, and the place
of it's nativity was Southwestern
Asia. If this is true, the breeding
of grains, by selection at least. is
certainly older than we are usually
wiling to acknowledge, because We
pride ourselves these days on our
grain breeding methods and our
knowledge of the laws which under
lie those methods. Unquestionably
our understanding of the laws gov
erning breeding operations is greater
than was that of our forefathers, but
we must give our so-called heather
ancestors credit for much in the way
of Improvement.
Barley Grown in Egypt.
1--WE know that barley was grown
as grain in Egypt six thousand
years ago, as is shown by reproduce
tions of the heads and sheaves ON
Egyptian coins of that age. 1t has
been grown in China for over two
thousand years, and was the chief
bread plant of Europe UP to 1900
A. d. 1t is distributed over two
thirds of Europe and Asia. In Eu-
rope it is grown from Norway to
the north. to the Mediterranean in
the south. 1t was first introduced
into America at Nova Scotia in 1000
,,,I Ia, al, IL g.. IT,
gina. Now it is grown from Alaska
to Florida and from Nova Scotia
to California. In fact, it is widely
distributed in all the temperate re-
gions of the earth.
"In 1850 the North Atlantic states
produced 81 per cent of the barley
crop. Now California, Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas pro.
duce 80 per cent of the crop in the
United States. This increased pro.
duction in the north central states
is largely to the substitution of bar.
ley for wheat as the cash crop of
the farmer. When wheat had been
grown continually until the soil be-
came wheat SICK" the farmers were
compelled to adopt some other sys-
tenn of farming or go out of BUSH
ness. In the states mentioned, the
change has been largely from wheat
raising to dairying, which required
a rotation of crops in which barley
became the principal grain crop. Bar
ley makes an ideal nurse crop for
the clOvers and grasses necessary for
the proper feeding of dairy cattle.
Introduced Into Wisconsin.
Barley was first introduced into
Wisconsin in 1859 and the Manshury
variety was distributed to some ex-
tent in 1861. The first great impetus
to barley production, however, did
not occur until about 189, when the
Wisconsin Experiment station took
up the breeding and dissemination of
this cereal. The Manshury barley,
which was introduced into Wisconsin
in 1861, was brought from Germany
by doctor at Watertown, Wis, who
gave the seed to the experiment sta
ton where it was grown for distri.
button, although in these early years,
no special effort was made to i'm
prove it. In 1899, the Wisconsin sta
ton obtained from the Canadian sta
ton at Guelph, Ontario, quantity
of barley called Oderbrucher, which
had also come from Germany. 1t SO
closely resembled the Manshury in
every particular except strength of
straw, wherein 1t excelled, that it
would be difficult to tell them apart.
Both these varieties had come origi-
nally from Manchuria, SO that the
origin being similar it is possible
that both came from the same strain.
when the breeding of barley was
begun in Wisconsin, there were sew
eral questions of Importance to be
decided.