Everything about Barley totally explained
Barley (
Hordeum vulgare) is an
annual cereal grain, which serves as a major animal
feed crop, with smaller amounts used for
malting and in health food. It is a member of the grass family
Poaceae. In 2005, barley ranked fourth in quantity produced and in area of cultivation of cereal crops in the world (560,000 km²).
The domesticated form (
H. vulgare) is descended from
wild barley (
H. spontaneum). Both forms are
diploid (2n=14
chromosomes). As wild barley is interfertile with domesticated barley, the two forms are often treated as one species,
Hordeum vulgare, divided into subspecies
spontaneum (wild) and subspecies
vulgare (domesticated). The main difference between the two forms is the brittle
rachis of the former, which enables seed dispersal in the wild.
Crop history
Wild barley comes from Epi-
Paleolithic sites in the
Levant, beginning in the
Natufian. The earliest domesticated barley occurs at Aceramic
Neolithic sites in the Near East such as the (PPN B) layers of
Tell Abu Hureyra in
Syria. Barley was one of the
first crops domesticated in the Near East, at the same time as
einkorn and
emmer wheat.
Barley was alongside
emmer wheat, a staple cereal of
ancient Egypt, where it was used to make
bread and
beer; together, these were a complete diet. The general name for barley is
jt (hypothetically pronounced "eat");
šma (hypothetically pronounced "SHE-ma") refers to
Upper Egyptian barley and is a symbol of Upper Egypt. According to
Deuteronomy 8:8, barley is one of the "
Seven Species" of crops that characterize the fertility of the
Promised Land of
Canaan, and barley has a prominent role in the
Israelite sacrifices described in the
Pentateuch (see for example
Numbers 5:15). A religious importance extended into the
Middle Ages in Europe, and saw barley's use in
justice, via
alphitomancy and the
corsned.
In ancient Greece, the ritual significance of barley possibly dates back to the earliest stages of the
Eleusinian Mysteries. The preparatory
kykeon 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".
The practice was to dry the barley
groats and roast them before preparing the porridge, according to
Pliny the Elder's
Natural History (xviii.72). This produces
malt that soon ferments and becomes slightly alcoholic.
Tibetan barley has been the only major
staple food in
Tibet for centuries. It is made into a flour product called
tsampa.
Palaeoethnobotanists have found that barley has been grown in the Korean Peninsula since the Early
Mumun Pottery Period (c. 1500–850 BCE) along with other crops such as millet, wheat, and legumes.
As of 1881
According to the 1881
Household Cyclopedia:
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 isn't 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 barley to be perfectly reared, it ought not to be cultivated.
Preparation of ground
Barley is chiefly taken after turnips, sometimes after peas and beans, but rarely by bad farmers either after wheat or oats, unless under special circumstances. When sown after turnips it's 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's 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 [11t/km²] are sometimes sown; twelve [16t/km²] 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's done few offsets are produced, the crop grows and ripens equally, and the grain is uniformly good.
Production
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