Barley
Barley is a major food and animal feed crop, 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 . Its
germination time is anywhere from 1-3 days.
Encyclopedia
Barley is a major food and animal feed crop, 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 . Its
germination time is anywhere from 1-3 days.
History
Cultivated barley is descended from
wild barley , which grows wild in the
Middle East. Both forms are diploid . As wild barley is interfertile with domesticated barley, the two forms are often treated as one species, divided into
Hordeum vulgare subsp.
spontaneum and subsp.
vulgare . The main difference between the two forms is the brittle
rachis of the former, which enables seed dispersal in the wild. The earliest finds of wild barley come from Epi-Paleolithic sites in the
Levant, beginning in the Natufian. The earliest domesticated barley occurs at Aceramic
Neolithic sites such as the 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 ;
šma refers to
Upper Egyptian barley and is a symbol of Upper Egypt.
The ritual significance of barley in ancient Greece 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".
Barley in Egyptian hieroglyphs| jt barley determinative/ideogram | M34 |
| jt spelling | i-t-U9:M33 |
| šma determinative/ideogram | U9 |
Greek practice was to dry the barley groats and roast them before preparing the porridge, according to
Pliny the Elder's
Natural History or "Natural History" is an encyclopedia [i] written by Pliny the Elder [i]. ...
. This produces
malt that soon ferments and becomes slightly alcoholic.
Tibetan barley has been the only major staple food in
Tibet for centuries.
Palaeoethnobotanists have found that barley has been grown in the Korean Peninsula since the Early Mumun Pottery Period 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 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.
;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 [11 t/km²] are sometimes sown; twelve [16 t/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 is done few offsets are produced, the crop grows and ripens equally, and the grain is uniformly good.
Production
Barley was grown in about 100 countries worldwide in 2005. The world production in 1974 was 148,818,870 tonnes, showing little change in the amount of barley produced worldwide.
Cultivars
Barley can be divided by the number of kernel rows in the head. Three forms have been cultivated; two-row barley , four-row and six-row barley . In two-row barley only one spikelet is fertile, in the four-row and six-row forms, all three are fertile.
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 and thus a lower
enzyme content. High protein barley is best suited for animal feed or malt that will be used to make beers with a large adjunct content. Two-row barley is traditionally used in English beers, Six-row barley is traditional in German and American beers. Four-row is unsuitable for brewing.
Barley is widely adaptable and is currently a major crop of the temperate and tropical areas.
Uses
Barley is a staple food for humans and other animals. It is more tolerant of soil salinity 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.
References
