at, which in its
general manurial requirements it resembles. Wheat, which is largely sown
in autumn, has four or five months' start of barley. From the fact that
it is a short-lived crop, and that its roots are shallower than wheat,
and draw their nourishment chiefly from the surface-soil, it benefits to
a greater extent from liberal manuring than wheat, which is more
independent of artificial supplies of fertilisers.

_Most suitable Soil._

Again, while wheat does well on a heavy soil, and does not require a
fine surface-tilth, barley does best on a light, rich, friable soil. It
has, however, been very successfully grown on a heavy soil after wheat.
Barley benefits more than wheat does from the application of
superphosphate of lime, or some other readily available phosphatic
manure. This may be accounted for by its shorter period of growth and
shallower root system, which thus prevent it drawing much mineral
sustenance from the subsoil. In fact, spring-sown crops, as a rule,
benefit more from superphosphate than autumn-sown crops. The exhaustion
of a soil under barley is essentially, as in the case of wheat, one of
nitrogen, as Sir J. Henry Gilbert has pointed out.[244]

_Farmyard Manure not suitable._

It has been urged, with some show of reason, that farmyard manure is not
suitable for barley, as its action is too slow to have much influence on
so short-lived a plant, and that only quick-acting manures should be
used. Where farmyard manure is applied, it should be to the preceding
crop; and this is advisable for more reasons than one.

_Importance of uniform Manuring of Barley._

The use to which barley is put--viz., for malting purposes--renders the
uniformity of its composition a point of great importance. Since its
quality is very largely influenced by its treatment with manures,
special care has to be exercised in their application. Grown as it
generally is after roots, fed off with sheep, its quality, it is
alleged, is apt to suffer from the unequal distribution of the manure
applied in this way. It has consequently been recommended, in order to
avoid this inequality, rather to grow a wheat crop immediately preceding
the barley.

_Norfolk Experiments on Barley._

Mr Cooke, in summing up the results of the interesting Norfolk
experiments on barley, points out that in these experiments barley
always was benefited by nitrogenous manures, sometimes by superphosphate
of lime, and more rarely by pota