Barley (Genus Hordeum )

Part V. Cereal Foods.

In the United States barley is not used to any extent as human food. It has all the nutritive properties of the common cereals and may be considered as a food product, although its chief use is in the making of fermented beverages which will be described in full in the second volume.

Barley is cultivated chiefly in the northern and western portions of the United States and is similar to the oat in this respect, that when the grain is threshed by the ordinary process the first layer of chaff is not separated, and, therefore, it goes into the market unhulled. There are varieties of naked barley which are not much cultivated. The cultivated varieties (Hordeum sativum Pers.) belong practically to one species, although there are very many different varieties grown.

The character of barley best suited to malting will be discussed in the second volume.

Acreage and Yield of Barley.

—The area planted to barley in the United States and other statistical data relating thereto for the year 1906 are as follows:

Acreage, 6,323,757

Yield per acre, 28.3 bushels

Total production, 178,916,484 „

Price per bushel, 41.5 cents

Value of crop, 74,235,997 dollars

Composition of a Typical Unhulled Barley.

—From a comparative study of a number of samples of American barley the following numbers are regarded as typical of the composition of the unhulled barley grown in the United States:

Weight of 100 kernels, 4.53 grams

Moisture, 10.85 percent

Protein, 11.00 „

Ether extract, 2.25 „

Crude fiber, 3.85 „

Ash, 2.50 „

Starch and sugar, etc., 69.55 „

The important points brought out in the above data are that the percentage of fiber in the unhulled barley is less than one-half that of the unhulled oat, as stated further on, while the percentage of ether extract is only about one-half that of the unhulled oat, and the protein is also decidedly less than in the whole oat.

As has been stated, barley is not very generally used in this country for human food, but is used in this and other countries as an ingredient of soup.

Protein of Barley.

—The following protein compounds are found in barley in proportionate weight to the total weight of the seed:

Leucosin, 0.30 percent

Hordein, 4.00 „

Edestin, 1.95 „

Proteose, 1.95 „

Insoluble protein, 4.50 „

As seen from the above table the most important of the soluble proteins is hordein, which in quantity is almost equal to the insoluble protein of the barley grain. The starch granules of barley are recognized by their distinctive shape and size, as revealed by the microscope. A typical microphotographic view of barley starch is shown in Fig. 22.