Barley diseases.
Barley is affected by rust, mildew and smut. No effective remedy has been found for rust and mildew. Smut can be reduced by the formaldehyde method of treatment. Smut is a fungous disease caused by minute spores lodging underneath the hull of the barley grains previous to the ripening period. These little spores remain inactive until the barley is planted,' when they germinate with the seed and send hair-like threads up through the stem of the plant. Practically all heads growing from a seed which contains the smut spores are smutted and the grain is destroyed. As soon as the smut is matured fully, it is blown by the wind to unaffected heads of barley and finds lodging beneath the hulls of the unripened kernels. The hulls close over the spores at the time of ripening and hold them securely until germination begins when the spores begin their deadly work.
Two kinds of smut affect barley, the closed or covered smut (Ustilago hordei), and the loose smut (Ustilago nuda). The formaldehyde treatment is satisfactory against the closed smut, but not against the loose or open smut. Hot water is now recommended for both kinds. The barley crop of Wisconsin was affected with smut to the extent of 5 per cent in the season of 1905. When barley bad been sown on test with and without treatment, a reduction of 4 per cent was reported in favor of the treated seed.
Treatment.—Make a solution by pouring one pint of formaldehyde into twenty gallons of water, the solution to be placed in barrels or a trough. Sacks of barley should be submerged in the solu tion for ten minutes, then emptied on a threshing floor or platform to dry. After the treatment, if the seed barley is covered for about two hours with oilcloth or blankets so that the fumes of the formaldehyde can act on the spores, the treatment will be much more effective.
Extensive experiments have been made at the Wisconsin Station with the hot-water treatment of seed for smut. The hot-water treatment was found thoroughly effective against both kinds of smut, and it is a very simple operation. The grain is placed in gunny sacks and submerged for twelve hours in cold water to soften the hull and berry. It is then removed and allowed to drain for an hour. The sacks are then submerged in hot water at a constant temperature of 130° F., for a period of not over six minutes. Provision must be made to add hot water to keep the temperature constant, as it will be lowered when the grain is put in. It is well to put the grain in another tank of hot water that has a temperature a little below 130° F., in order to heat the grain before putting it in the tank with the constant temperature. The seed should be sown the same day or the day following, as it will sprout. The experiments made at Wis
consin are reported in the Twenty-third Annual Report of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, 1906.
Uses in America.
In the United States and Canada, barley isg used almost exclusively ,,pik.:,_-__,..441 --,—...
for malting purposes and Traz..,--..-- as a food for domestic :-.--..,-,'''•--• j animals. Its use as a ',.' human diet is limited, be- :,:s ,k,'Ve.:,(4,TI,/,73; ing confined to a few '''=', preparations commonly known as pearl barley. In the Pacific states barley is Fig. 294. Ba grown generally as hay and grain for horses. As a hay it is cut and cured when in the early milk stage. The grain is fed whole, or milled by passing between rollers which merely crush it. If ground like mill feeds, the abundance of gluten therein makes a sticky mass when brought in contact with moisture. Horses are fed barley only to a limited extent in the oat-growing states. In Canada and the United States, swine and poultry are fed rather generally on barley, and all feeders attest to its high value as a producer of pork and bacon of the finest grade. The use of barley as a feed for dairy animals. Horses and other farm animals are fed to a limited extent on brewers' grains, and are said to relish them. The brewers' grains, which may be secured either wet or dry, are the barley grains after the soluble dextrin and sugar have been extracted for the purpose of making beer. These by-products accumulate at breweries in great quantities, and often can be purchased for less than the actual fertilizing value contained therein. By judicious feeding and a proper regard to the saving of the manure a farmer may secure the feeding value practically free.
The digestible nutrients, fertilizing constituents and composition as given in Henry's "Feeds and Feeding" are as follows : food for domestic animals is becoming more popu lar as the farmers learn its feeding value.
By-products.
The principal by-products of barley when used for brewing, are malt-sprouts and brewers' grains, the latter of which are used extensively as Literature.
The reader is referred to the bulletins issued by several of the experiment stations, and by the United States Department of Agriculture. More or less extended treatment of barley is given in the following publications : American Brewers' Review ; Fream, Elements of Agriculture ; Henry, Feeds and Feeding ; Hunt, Cereals in America ; Witc.,x and Smith, Farmers Cyclopedia of Agri cuttore ; Wiseonsin Experiment Association, 3d ant 4th reports ; Wisconsin Experiment Station t.:(), 21, 22, 23; Yearbooks of the United States Department of Agriculture.