Improved Varieties of Barley

by G. A. WIEBE

MORE THAN two score varieties of barley have been released in the past decade. They average 3 to 5 bushels more grain to the acre than the ones they replace. Often the new kinds have other advantages, like greater resistance to smut, rust, mildew, scald, spot blotch, stripe, and other diseases, greater winter hardiness, resistance to insect attack, greater tolerance to drought, stronger straw, and smooth awns. Nearly all sections where barley is important have benefited. The improvements are largely the work of plant breeders in cooperating Federal and State research institutions, but the help of farmers has been tremendously important.

In breeding barley it is not often that four varieties stem from a single cross. V. H. Florell made such a one. Working at Davis, Calif., for the Department and in cooperation with the California Agricultural Experiment Station, Florell crossed Atlas, which is rough-awned, with Vaughn, a semismooth kind, in 1927. The parents were well adapted to California and had yielded well. Florell's work was later transferred to Moscow, Idaho, where many selections were made, but all but the 45 most promising ones were discarded. These were distributed to western experiment stations in 1934, and from them four varieties were good enough to be released, Arivat and Beecher in 1940, in Arizona and Colorado, respectively; Glacier, in 1943, in Montana; and Gem, which was scheduled for release in Idaho in 1947. These spring-type varieties are six-rowed and have semismooth awns like Vaughn.

Arivat has yielded 10 percent more grain, in a 9-year test at the Mesa, Ariz., station, than Vaughn. It has a stiff straw and matures early.

Beecher is the earliest maturing variety grown on the Great Plains. At the Akron, Colo., station, its yield has been 8 percent above Club Mariout and about equal to Munsing. Its combination of earliness and drought resistance makes it a promising barley for the Great Plains. Because its straw is stiff and the grain does not shatter, it is suitable for combining. Its most serious defect is its susceptibility to nuda loose smut, which may cause losses up to 10 percent in certain years. Beecher is grown in the area where the borders of Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska touch.

Glacier is recommended for irrigated and other lands in Montana. It is a six-rowed feed variety, early maturing, and semismooth-awned. In comparison with Trebi, Glacier shows 25 percent less lodging and yields 25 to 35 percent more grain to the acre. It resists covered smut, but is susceptible to nuda loose smut. It is grown in Montana.

In tests at the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station at Moscow, Gem yielded 21 percent more grain than Trebi. It is recommended as a feed barley for the nonirrigated lands of Idaho. Its straw is a little shorter and stiffer than that of Trebi, and its grain does not shatter, so it is suitable for combining. The semismooth awns give the straw value as a feed.

The keen eye of a North Dakota farmer gave us another spring barley that is grown in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. S. T. Lykken, who farms near Kindred, N. Dak., grew a field of barley in 1935, a good kind known as Wisconsin Pedigree 37 and a full sister to the widely grown Wisconsin Barbless. Stem rust was bad that year, and Mr. Lykken decided to plow up his field. On one of the turns across this field he observed a single plant—no small feat, that!—that was different: It had no rust. It had 18 seeds, which he planted in his garden the following year. The next few years the seed was carefully increased; by 1942 its presence as a commercial variety began to be felt. It was named Kindred, after Mr. Lykken's home town; seedsmen also call it "L." Its resistance to stem rust, first observed by Lykken, has been confirmed by others. Kindred resembles Manchuria, and in years when stem rust is absent its yield is the same. But it has a considerable advantage in years when stem rust is bad. Its most serious defect is its weak straw, which often causes lodging and some loss in the amount and quality of grain. It malts well.