Barley History Varieties Uses Preparation Of Ground

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is a major food and animal feed crop, and a member of the grass family. Barley is the fifth largest cultivated cereal crop in the world (530,000 km² or 132 million acres). Its germination time is anywhere from 1-3 days.

1 History

Cultivated barley is descended from wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum) which still can be found in the Middle East. Both forms are diploid (2n=14 chromosomes). All variants of barley produce viable seed when crossed and are thus considered to belong to one and the same species today. The major difference between wild and domesticated barley is the brittle rachis of the former, which is conductive to self-propagation. The earliest finds of barley come from Epi- Paleolithic sites the LevantThe Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in Southwest Asia south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and in the east, the north Arabian Desert and Mesopotamia. The Levant does n, beginning in the Natufian. The first domesticated barley has been found in the aceramic neolithicThe Neolithic (Greek neos new, lithos stone, or "New Stone Age") is traditionally the last part of the stone age. The name was invented by John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. It followed Pleistocene Epipalaeolithic and early Holo layers (PPN B) of TellA tell (Arabic, or tel תל, Hebrew) is an archaeological site in the form of an earthen mound that results from the accumulation and subsequent erosion of material deposited by human occupation over long periods of time. A tell mostly consist Abu Hureyra in SyriaThe Syrian Arab Republic is a country in Southwest Asia, bordering (from south to north) on Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. The border with Israel is subject to dispute, pending the resolution of outstanding conflicts over possession of the Gola. The domestication seems to be contemporaneous to that of wheataestivum ''T. aethiopicum ''T. araraticum ''T. boeoticum ''T. carthlicum ''T. compactum ''T. dicoccon ''T. durum ''T. ispahanicum ''T. karamyschevii ''T. militinae T. monococcum ''T. polonicum T. spelta ''T. timopheevii ''T. trunciale ''T. turanicum ''T..

Barley, as an ancient and central gift of the earth, had ritual significance, probably from the earliest stages of the Eleusinian MysteriesThe Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysterie. The preparatory kykeonKykeon was the drink used at the climax of the Eleusinian Mysteries to break a sacred fast. It was said to be a mix of barley and pennyroyal. In an attempt to solve the mystery of how so many people over the span of two millennia could have consistently e or mixed drink of the initiates, prepared from barley and herbs, was referred to in the Homeric hymn to Demeter, who was also called "Barley-mother".

Greek practice was to dry the barley groats and roast them before preparing the porridge, according to Pliny's Natural History (xviii.72). This produces a malt that soon ferments and becomes slightly alcoholic.

2 Varieties

Barley may be divided into two sorts, fall and spring; to which may be added a bastard variety, called bear or bigg, which affords similar nutriment or substance, though of inferior quality. The spring is cultivated like oats; the fall, like fall wheat. Early barley, under various names, was formerly sown in Britain upon lands that had been previously summer-fallowed, or were in high condition.

The most proper seed season for spring barley is any time in March or April, though we have seen good crops produced, the seed of which was sown at a much later period.

Barley can be divided by the number of kernal rows in the head. There are three types; two-row barley (Hordeum distichum), four-row (Hordeum tetrastichum L. and six-row barley (Hordeum vulgare var hexastichum Körn.) according to the traditional terminology. In two-row barley only one flower is fertile, two in the four-row variety, in the six-row variety all three.

Two-row barley is the oldest form, wild barley having two-rows as well. Two-row barley has a lower protein content than six-row barley but a higher enzyme content. High protein barley is best suited for animal feed or malt that has a large adjunct content. Two-row barley is best suited for pure malts.

There are naked and hulled barleys, the hulled barleys being the older forms.

Barley is widely adaptable and is currently a major crop of the temperate and tropical areas.

3 Uses

Barley is a staple food for humans and other animals. It is more tolerant of salts than wheat, which might explain the increase of barley cultivation on Mesopotamia from the 2nd Millennium BC onwards. Barley can still thrive in conditions that are too cold even for rye.

Malting barley is a key ingredient in beer and whiskey production.

The 1881 Household Cyclopedia adds:

Next to wheat the most valuable grain is barley, especially on light and sharp soils. It is a tender grain and easily hurt in any of the stages of its growth, particularly at seed time; a heavy shower of rain will then almost ruin a crop on the best prepared land; and in all the after processes greater pains and attention are required to ensure success than in the case of other grains. The harvest process is difficult, and often attended with danger; even the threshing of it is not easily executed with machines, because the awn generally adheres to the grain, and renders separation from the straw a troublesome task. Barley, in fact, is raised at greater expense than wheat, and generally speaking is a more hazardous crop. Except upon rich and genial soils, where climate will allow wheat to be perfectly reared, it ought not to be cultivated.

4 Preparation of ground

Barley is chiefly taken after turnips, sometimes after peas and beans, but rarely by good farmers either after wheat or oats, unless under special circumstances. When sown after turnips it is generally taken with one furrow, which is given as fast as the turnips are consumed, the ground thus receiving much benefit from the spring frosts. But often two, or more furrows are necessary for the fields last consumed, because when a spring drought sets in, the surface, from being poached by the removal or consumption of the crop, gets so hardened as to render a greater quantity of ploughing, harrowing and rolling necessary than would otherwise be called for. When sown after beans and peas, one winter and one spring ploughing are usually bestowed: but when after wheat or oats, three ploughings are necessary, so that the ground may be put in proper condition. These operations are very ticklish in a wet and backward season, and rarely in that case is the grower paid for the expense of his labor. Where land is in such a situation as to require three ploughings before it can be seeded with barley, it is better to summer-fallow it at once than to run the risks which seldom fail to accompany a quantity of spring labor. If the weather be dry, moisture is lost during the different processes, and an imperfect braird necessarily follows; if it be wet the benefit of ploughing is lost, and all the evils of a wet seed time are sustained by the future crop.

The quantity sown is different in different cases, according to the quality of the soil and other circumstances. Upon very rich lands eight pecks per acre (108 kg/ha) are sometimes sown; twelve (161 kg/ha) is very common, and upon poor land more is sometimes given.

By good judges a quantity of seed is sown sufficient to ensure a full crop, without depending on its sending out offsets; indeed, where that is done few offsets are produced, the crop grows and ripens equally, and the grain is uniformly good.

Cereals Grasses

<Hide>

Russia	72,000 km²
Canada	45,000 km²
Ukraine	37,000 km²
Turkey	36,000 km²
Spain	33,000 km²
Australia	30,000 km²
Morocco	23,000 km²
USA	21,000 km²
Iraq	12,000 km²
Iran	10,000 km²

Home > Barley