barley

Hordeum vulgare

Also known as pearl barley and scotch barley, this is widely cultivated as a food grain. It is an annual plant with a stout, hollow stem which is jointed and grows between 1 1/2 to 3 feet high. It has narrow, tapering leaves, the bases of which form loose sheaths around the stem. It's flowers grow in terminal spikes which eventually produce the furrowed barley grains.

The grains of the barley plant have a demulcent effect. When hulled barley is cooked, it produces a mucilaginous substance which is a source of nutrition for people with stomach or throat problems. Stomach and intestinal irritations can be soothed with a mixture of barley water and milk. Feverish conditions may also be helped be barley. The cooked grains make an effective external application for sores and tumors.

As of the late 1800s:

1. What constitutes the difference in grades of barley?

      The following are the rules governing the State inspection of barley in Chicago:

   No. 1 barley shall be plump, bright, clean, and free from other grain.
   
   No. 2 barley shall be sound, of healthy color, bright or but slightly stained, not plump enough for No. 1, reasonably clean, and reasonably free from other grain.
   
   No. 3 barley shall include slightly shrunken and otherwise slightly damaged barley, not good enough for No. 2.
   
   No. 4 barley shall include all barley fit for malting purposes, not good enough for No. 3.
   
   No. 5 barley shall include all barley which is badly damaged, or for any cause unfit for malting purposes, except that barley which has been chemically heated shall not be graded at all.

2. Wherein does the color of barley affect the quality of the grain?

      The color of barley is an indication of its age and condition in several respects.

3. How, except to gouge the farmer, did the custom of making fifty pounds of barley for the bushel originate, the legal standard being forty-eight pounds?

      The legal bushel by weight is different in different States. In California and Nevada it is 50 pounds; in Wisconsin and most other States it is 48; in Pennsylvania, 47; in Oregon, 46; in Louisiana it is only 32. Boards of trade make rules for themselves, one object being uniformity for the whole country.

4. Are farmers under obligation to conform to board of trade rules, contrary to law?

      As a rule, statutes fixing the weight per bushel of various commodities specify that this is to apply only in cases where contracts fail to specify the weight to be given. When grain is sold on ’Change the rules of the board determine the weight to be delivered. Since seller and purchaser are presumed to be acquainted with these rules, it is hard to imagine how either can justly complain of being “gouged.”

Source:
The Inter Ocean Curiosity Shop for the year 1883
edited by William P. Jones, A. M.
Seventh Edition

The Inter Ocean Publishing Company,
Madison and Dearborn Streets
Chicago
1891

Bar"ley (?), n. [OE. barli, barlich, AS. baerlic; bere barley + lic (which is prob. the same as E. like, adj., or perh. a form of AS. leac leek). AS. bere is akin to Icel, barr barley, Goth. barizeins made of barley, L. far spelt; cf. W. barlys barley, bara bread. 92. Cf. Farina, 6th Bear.] Bot.

A valuable grain, of the family of grasses, genus Hordeum, used for food, and for making malt, from which are prepared beer, ale, and whisky.

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Barley bird Zool., the siskin. -- Barley sugar, sugar boiled till it is brittle (formerly with a decoction of barley) and candied. -- Barley water, a decoction of barley, used in medicine, as a nutritive and demulcent.

© Webster 1913.