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Show L. Mil I-LI KO U.ll rrlliiil L ,VJ : Success in Western States During the Past Few Years Has Attracted Much Attention. (By . H. HKHrt. Atrvnnomlst In Charge ot Hurley InvesllBiitioiis. II. S. D.part- menl of Agriculture.) Liarley has generally not been con sidereil a dry laud crop, but Ha success suc-cess in the western states during the past few' years has attracted attention to lis possibilities for that purpose. In :.!ie northern great plains and Kooky mountain states, where corn is an tin-certain tin-certain nop. barley will furnish an excellent feed for all kinds of farm nninials. This tact has already given flu Impetus to the growing of live stock, especially hogs, throughout the northwest. In the Rocky mountain und Pacific coast states hooded, or beardless, barley has long been grown for hay, of which it furnishes an excellent ex-cellent and highly palatable crop, nearly near-ly equal to alfalfa in feeding value. In Utah, Idaho, eastern Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas Tex-as farmers are beginning to realize the advantages of winter barley over spring sown barley as a grain crop Winter barley, being fall sown, ha.) the advantage of an early start in the spring and will frequently produce a crop where spring sown barley may fail. At present there are but two forms of winter barley grown In the west, the square-head Tennessee winter and the round-head Utah winter. The office of grain Investigations, bureau of plant Industry, department of agriculture, ag-riculture, has developed a number of other winter forms which were distributed dis-tributed in 1911, and results will be watched with interest. No single variety, either spring or winter, seems to be adapted to the entire semi-arid region. Among the winter forms, Tennessee winter, a beared six-rowed barley, has so far, given best results, and Hannchen, a beared two-rowed spring barley, leads In yield In the Dakotas. Among the six-rowed spring forms, Manchuria, Gataml and Odessa are the best Among the hulless varieties Himalaya (Guy Mayle), Black hulless and Nepal Ne-pal ( White hulless), give the best results. With the exception of sandy and very alkaline land, barley can he grown on a variety of soils, but the best results are generally secured on the prairie or alluvial loam soils Barley Bar-ley Is a more certain crop on alkaline soils than is either wheat or oats. The crop requires a mellow seed bed. If the land Is plowed It should be Immediately harrowed to conserve tne moisture. In many localities best results re-sults are obtained when the land is fall plowed and left rough until spring and then disked and harrowed. Where there is a tendency to blowing of the soil, granular soil is preferable to the dust mulch generally advised. The yield and quality of barley are considerably Influenced by the kind of seed sown. The seed should be thoroughly thor-oughly cleaned and graded before sowing. sow-ing. Large, plump seed will produce strong plants, which, in the struggle for existence that always follows seeding seed-ing dry land crops, w:ill be more likely to survive than will plants produced from small, shrunken seeds. The fanning mill should be found on every farm, but when not available a simple yet highly effective method for cleaning and grading the seed is to immerse it in a tub of water and stir thoroughly. All the light, chaffy and diseased grains, as well as the larger portion of wild oats and other weed seeds, will come to the surface and can be skimmed off and burned. If the seed was smutted, adding formalin form-alin at the rate of one pound to 4.0 gallons of water will be found effective effec-tive in preventing its further propagation. |