Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/336

 316 BARLEY BARLOW Hordeum distichum. tenor of Asia, and the common species is stated by Pursh to occur apparently wild in some parts of the United States. The barley cultivated in this country is of two species, If. vulyare and H. distichum, the grains of the former being arranged in four rows, and of the latter in two. A third species is cultivated in Europe, H. kexastichum, also called the au- tumn and winter barley. This has six rows of grains, each row terminating in along beard. This is al- ways sown in the fall, and ripens the first in the summer. Its grains are small, but the yield is large sometimes 20 for 1. The Scotch bere or bigg is of this spe- cies. H. distichum, or English barley, originally from Tar- tary, has no grain beard, is more pro- ductive than the other kinds, and suc- ceeds in almost all soils. The grain is excellent feed for cattle and barnyard stock. The crop in Great Britain is from 28 to 40 bushels to the acre, the weight of the bushel being from 50 to 54 Ibs., according to the quality of the grain. The total production of barley in the United States in 1870 was 15,825,898 bushels. In Cal- ifornia it is next to wheat the most important grain crop, sometimes yielding largely for five successive years without renewed sowing; its production in 1870 was 4,415,426 bushels. The next largest crop was in New York, 4,186,668 bushels; then follow Ohio, 1,663,868; Illinois, 1,036,338; Maine, 802,108; Wisconsin, 707,307; and Pennsylvania, 530,714. In most of the other states, especially of the south, the pro- duction is small. Barley hulled and ground makes a coarse, heavy kind of bread, and is very extensively employed in the manufacture of beer, and to some extent for medicinal pur- poses. Barley corns are of an oval, elongated shape, pointed at one end and obtuse at the other, and marked with a longitudinal furrow. Their color externally is yellowish, but within they are white. Stripped of their outer cover- ing or husk, and rounded and polished in a mill, the grains are pearly white, and are then known as pearl barley. This is the form in which they are always kept by druggists. Bar- ley flour analyzed by Einhoff was found to con- tain, in 1,000 parts, starch, 720 parts; sugar, 56 ; mucilage, 50 ; gluten, 36-6 ; vegetable al- bumen, 12-3; water, 100; phosphate of lime, 2'5; and fibrous or woody matter, 68. The quality of the grain is judged of by the quantity of water it absorbs when steeped in it; 100 Ibs. of good barley gain by absorption 47 Ibs. of water. From the times of Hippocrates and Galen, barley drinks have been in high repute in febrile and inflammatory complaints. They possess mild, soothing qualities, while at the same time they impart nourishment. BARLOW, Joel, an American poet and politi- cian, born at Reading, Conn., in 1755, died near Cracow, Poland, Dec. 22, 1812. He was educated at Dartmouth and Yale colleges, and during his latter vacations took part in the opening scenes of the revolution, fighting val- iantly, it is said, in the battle at White Plains. At his graduation in 1778 he read a poem upon the prospect of peace, which, with another poem delivered on occasion of taking his mas- ter's degree, was published in the Litchfield collection of American poems. He began the study of law upon leaving college, but the army being at that time deficient in chaplains, he was persuaded to study theology, and after six weeks' preparation was licensed a Congrega- tional minister, and joined the army, where he inspired the troops not only by his preaching but by patriotic songs and speeches. At the close of the war he resumed the study of law, and settled in Hartford, where ho established a weekly newspaper, and prosecuted his poetical designs, adapting Watts's versions of the Psalms of David to the use of the general association of Connecticut, and adding to the collection several original hymns. His " Vision of Colum- bus" was published by subscription in 1787, received with favor, and reprinted in London and in Paris. In 1788 he went to England as agent of a land company, but learning that he had become associated with a party of swindlers, he resigned his office, repaired to Paris, and involved himself in revolutionary schemes. In 1791 he published in London the first part of his "Advice to the Privileged Orders," a vehement production, which was soon followed by a poem upon the " Conspiracy of Kings." The poem was suggested by the first continental alliance against France, and was introduced by a prose preface violently de- nouncing Mr. Burke as the author of the calam- ities of the time. He published a translation of Volney's " Ruins, or Reflections on the Rev- olutions of Empires," and in 1792 sent a letter to the national convention of France, in which he recommended an extremely popular govern- ment. He became associated with the constitu- tional reformers of England, and was at the same time one of a commission sent by France to organize the newly acquired territory of Savoy. At Chambery he wrote an enthusiastic exhortation to the people of Piedmont to adopt the revolutionary principles of France, and there he wrote his humorous and most popular poem upon " Hasty Pudding." He made a for- tune in France by commercial speculations, and after addressing two extravagant political letters to the people of the United States, he returned in 1805 and established himself in Washington. In 1806 he propounded a scheme