"For he was speechless, ghastly, wanLike him of whom the story ranWho spoke the spectre hound in Man."
"For he was speechless, ghastly, wanLike him of whom the story ranWho spoke the spectre hound in Man."
"For he was speechless, ghastly, wan
Like him of whom the story ran
Who spoke the spectre hound in Man."
A Welsh variant is theCwn Annwn, or "dogs of hell." The barghest was essentially a nocturnal spectre, and its appearance was regarded as a portent of death. Its Welsh form is confined to the sea-coast parishes, and on the Norfolk coast the creature is supposed to be amphibious, coming out of the sea by night and travelling about the lonely lanes. The derivation of the word barghest is disputed. "Ghost" in the north of England is pronounced "guest," and the name is thought to beburh-ghest, "town-ghost." Others explain it as GermanBerg-geist, "mountain demon," orBar-geist, "bear-demon," in allusion to its alleged appearance at times as a bear. The barghest has a kinsman in theRongeur d'Osof Norman folklore. A belief in the spectre-hound still lingers in the wild parts of the north country of England, and in Nidderdale, Yorkshire, nurses frighten children with its name.
See Wirt Sikes,British Goblins(1880);Notes and Queries, first series, ii. 51; Joseph Ritson,Fairy Tales(Lond. 1831), p. 58;Lancashire Folklore(1867); Joseph Lucas,Studies in Nidderdale(Pateley Bridge, 1882).
BARHAM, RICHARD HARRIS(1788-1845), English humourist, better known by hisnom de plumeofThomas Ingoldsby, was born at Canterbury on the 6th of December 1788. At seven years of age he lost his father, who left him a small estate, part of which was the manor of Tappington, so frequently mentioned in theLegends. At nine he was sent to St Paul's school, but his studies were interrupted by an accident which shattered his arm and partially crippled it for life. Thus deprived of the power of bodily activity, he became a great reader and diligent student. In 1807 he entered Brasenose College, Oxford, intending at first to study for the profession of the law. Circumstances, however, induced him to change his mind and to enter the church. In 1813 he was ordained and took a country curacy; he married in the following year, and in 1821 removed to London on obtaining the appointment of minor canon of St Paul's cathedral. Three years later he became one of the priests in ordinary of the King's Chapel Royal, and was appointed to a city living. In 1826 he first contributed toBlackwood's Magazine; and on the establishment ofBentley's Miscellanyin 1837 he began to furnish the series of grotesque metrical tales known asThe Ingoldsby Legends. These became very popular, were published in a collected form and have since passed through numerous editions. In variety and whimsicality of rhymes these verses have hardly a rival since the days ofHudibras. But beneath this obvious popular quality there lies a store of solid antiquarian learning, the fruit of patient enthusiastic research, in out-of-the-way old books, which few readers who laugh over his pages detect. His life was grave, dignified and highly honoured. His sound judgment and his kind heart made him the trusted counsellor, the valued friend and the frequent peacemaker; and he was intolerant of all that was mean and base and false. In politics he was a Tory of the old school; yet he was the lifelong friend of the liberal Sydney Smith, whom in many respects he singularly resembled. Theodore Hook was one of his most intimate friends. Barham was a contributor to theEdinburgh Reviewand theLiterary Gazette; he wrote articles for Gorton'sBiographical Dictionary; and a novel,My Cousin Nicholas(1834). He retained vigour and freshness of heart and mind to the last, and his last verses ("As I laye a-thynkynge") show no signs of decay. He died in London after a long, painful illness, on the 17th of June 1845.
A short memoir, by his son, was prefixed to a new edition ofIngoldsbyin 1847, and a fullerLife and Letters, from the same hand, was published in 2 vols. in 1870.
BAR HARBOR,a well-known summer resort of Hancock county, Maine, U.S.A., an unincorporated village, in the township of Eden, on Frenchman's Bay, on the E. side of Mount Desert Island, about 45 m. S.E. of Bangor. Pop. of the township (1900) 4379; (1910) 4441; of the village (1910), about 2000, greatly increased during the summer season. Bar Harbor is served by the Maine Central railway and by steamship lines to New York, Boston, Portland and other ports. The summer climate is cool, usually too cool for sea-bathing, but there is alarge open-air salt water swimming bath. Rugged mountains from 1000 to 1500 ft. in height, a coast with deep indentations and lined with bold cliffs, a sea dotted with rocky islets, clear lakes, sparkling rivulets, deep gorges, and wooded glens are features of the attractive scenery here and in the vicinity. Several fine hotels and a number of costly residences occupy a plateau along the shore and the hillsides farther back. The Kebo Valley Club has fine golf links here; and since 1900 an annual horse show and fair has been held at Robin Hood Park at the foot of Newport Mountain. Bar Harbor is usually a summer rendezvous of the North Atlantic Squadron of the United States Navy. The name Bar Harbor, which displaced East Eden, was suggested by the bar which appears at low water between it and Bar Island. Although the first summer hotel was built here in 1855, Bar Harbor's development as a summer resort began about 1870, after some artists had visited the place, and made it widely known through their pictures. (SeeMount Desert.)
BAR-HEBRAEUSorAbu‛l-Faraj, a maphriān or catholicus of the Jacobite (Monophysite) Church in the 13th century, and (in Dr. Wright's words) "one of the most learned and versatile men that Syria ever produced." Perhaps no more industrious compiler of knowledge ever lived. Simple and uncritical in his modes of thought, and apparently devoid of any striking originality, he collected in his numerous and elaborate treatises the results of such research in theology, philosophy, science and history as was in his time possible in Syria. Most of his works were written in Syriac, but some few in Arabic, which had long before his time supplanted Syriac as a living speech.
The son of a physician of Jewish descent, Bar-Hebraeus was born in 1226 atMalaṭiahon the upper Euphrates. His youth was passed in the troublous times of the Mongol advance into western Asia, and his father eventually retired to Antioch, where Bar-Hebraeus completed his education. In 1246 he was ordained at Tripolis as Jacobite bishop of Gūbās nearMalaṭia, and a year later was transferred to the neighbouring diocese ofLaḳabhīn, whence in 1253 he passed to be bishop of Aleppo. Deposed almost immediately by an ecclesiastical superior on account of disputes about the patriarchate, he was restored to his see in 1258, and in 1264 was promoted by the patriarch Ignatius III. to be maphriān—the next rank below that of patriarch—an office which he held till his death at Marāgha in 1286. He seems to have been a model of devotion to his ecclesiastical duties and to have won the respect of all parties in his diocese.
It is mainly as an historian that Bar-Hebraeus interests the modern student. His great historical work—the SyriacChronicle—is made up of three parts. The first[1]is a history of secular events from the Creation to his own time, and in its later portions gives valuable information regarding the history of south-east Europe and western Asia. A compendium in Arabic of this secular history was made by Bar-Hebraeus under the titleal-Mukhtaṣar fi‛d-Duwal(Compendious History of the Dynasties). The second and third parts[2]of theChronicledeal with the history of the Church, the second being mainly concerned with the patriarchate of Antioch, and the third with the eastern branch of the Syrian Church. Of special value to theologians is theAuṣar Rāzē(Storehouse of Secrets), a critical and doctrinal commentary on the text of the Scriptures. Of this many portions have been edited by various scholars, and a valuable study of the work, together with a biography and estimate of its author, has been published by J. Göttsberger (Barhebräus und seine Scholien zur heiligen Schrift, Freiburg i. B., 1900).
A full list of Bar-Hebraeus's other works, and of editions of such of them as have been published, will be found in W. Wright'sSyriac Literature, pp. 268-281. The more important of them are:—(1)Kĕthābhā dhe-Bhābhāthā(Book of the Pupils of the Eyes), a treatise on logic or dialectics; (2)Ḥēwath Hēkhmĕthā(Butter of Wisdom), an exposition of the whole philosophy of Aristotle; (3)Sullāḳā Haunānāyā(Ascent of the Mind), a treatise on astronomy and cosmography, edited and translated by F. Nau (Paris, 1899); (4) various medical works; (5)Kĕthābhā dhĕ-Ṣemḥē(Book of Ravs), a treatise on grammar; (6) ethical works; (7) poems; (8)Kĕthābhā dhĕ-Thunnāyē Mĕghaḥḥĕkhānē(Book of Entertaining Stories), edited and translated by E. A. W. Budge (London, 1897).
(N. M.)
[1]Imperfectly edited and translated by Bruns and Kirsch in 1789. There is now a better edition by Bedjan (Paris, 1890).[2]Edited and translated by Abbeloos and Lamy (Paris and Louvain, 1872-1873).
[1]Imperfectly edited and translated by Bruns and Kirsch in 1789. There is now a better edition by Bedjan (Paris, 1890).
[2]Edited and translated by Abbeloos and Lamy (Paris and Louvain, 1872-1873).
BARI,a tribe of Nilotic negroes, living on the banks of the upper Nile some 200 m. N. of Albert Nyanza. They have as neighbours the Dinka to the north, the Madi to the south, and the Galla to the east. The men are tall and thin, the women fat and under middle height. Their colour is a deep dead brown. The men and unmarried girls go practically naked, the married women wearing a goatskin dyed red. The body is ornamented with red clay and the lower incisors are often extracted. Their sole wealth is cattle and their chief food milk and blood; meat is only eaten when a cow happens to die. They live in round grass huts with conical roofs. Twins are considered unlucky, the mother is divorced by her husband and her family must refund part of the marriage-price. The dead are buried in the hut; a square grave is dug in which the body is arranged in a sitting position with the hands tied behind the back. The most important men in the country are the rainmakers, who are reverenced even more than the chiefs, and, indeed, are famous among the surrounding tribes. The Bari warriors have been much recruited for the Egyptian army and were formerly used as slave-hunters by the Arab traders.
See Sir Samuel Baker,The Albert N'yanza(London, 1866); Friedrich Muller,Die Sprache der Bari(Vienna, 1864); G. Casati,Ten Years in Equatoria(London, 1891); W. Junker,Travels in Africa(English ed., 1890-1892); R. C. Owen,Bari Grammar(1908).
BARI(anc.Barium), a seaport and archiepiscopal see of Apulia, Italy, capital of the province of Bari, situated on a small peninsula projecting into the Adriatic, 69 m. N.W. of Brindisi by rail. Pop. (1901) 77,478. The town consists of two parts, the closely built old town on the peninsula to the N., and the new town to the S., which is laid out on a rectangular plan. The former contains the cathedral of S. Sabino, begun in 1035 but not completed till 1171: the exterior preserves in the main the fine original architecture (notably the dome and campanile), but the interior has been modernized. Not far off is the church of S. Nicola, founded in 1087 to receive the relics of this saint, which were brought from Myra in Lycia, and now lie beneath the altar in the crypt. The facade is fine, and the interior, divided into three naves by columns, with galleries over the aisles, has fortunately not been restored; the vaulting of the crypt has, however, been covered with modern stucco. The church is one of the four Palatine churches of Apulia (the others being the cathedrals of Acquaviva and Altamura, and the church of Monte S. Angelo sul Gargano). Adjacent is the small church of S. Gregorio, belonging also to the 11th century. The castle, built in 1169, and strengthened in 1233, lies on the W. side of the old town: it is now used as a prison. The old harbour lies on the E. side of the peninsula, and the new on the W. In the new town is the Ateneo, containing the provincial museum, with a large collection of vases found in the district, in which the pre-Hellenic specimens are especially important (M. Mayer inRömische Mitteilungen, 1897, 201; 1899, 13; 1904, 188, 276). Bari is the seat of the command of the IX. army corps, and the most important commercial town in Apulia. It manufactures olive oil, soap, carbon sulphide and playing-cards, and has a large iron foundry.
Barium does not seem to have been a place of great importance in early antiquity; only bronze coins struck by it have been found. In Roman times it was the point of junction between the coast road and the Via Traiana; there was also a branch road to Tarentum from Barium. Its harbour, mentioned as early as 181B.C., was probably the principal one of the district in ancient times, as at present, and was the centre of a fishery. But its greatest importance dates from the time when it became, in 852, a seat of the Saracen power, and in 885, the residence of the Byzantine governor. In 1071 it was captured by Robert Guiscard. In 1095 Peter the Hermit preached the first crusade there. In 1156 it was razed to the ground, and has several times suffered destruction. In the 14th century it became anindependent duchy, and in 1558 was left by Bona Sforza to Philip II. of Spain and Naples.
(T. As.)
BARILI,a town of the province of Cebu, island of Cebu, Philippine Islands, on the Barili river, 2 m. from its mouth and about 35 m. S.W. of Cebu, the capital. Pop. (1903) 31,617. It has a relatively cool and healthful climate. Its people are agriculturists and raise Indian corn, sibucao, hemp, cacao and coffee. The language is Cebu-Visayan.
BARING,the name of a family of English financiers and bankers. The firm of Baring Brothers was founded byFrancis Baring(1740-1810), whose father, John Baring, son of a Lutheran minister at Bremen, had come to England from Germany, and started a cloth manufactory at Larkbear, near Exeter. Francis Baring was born at Larkbear, and in due course was placed in a London commercial firm. In 1770, in conjunction with his brother John, Francis Baring established a banking-house in London, and before he died in 1810 had so developed the business that he was regarded as the first merchant in Europe. He was for many years a director of the East India Company, and chairman in 1792-1793, receiving a baronetcy for his services. From 1784-1806 he sat almost continuously in parliament as a Whig. He left five sons, of whom the eldest,Sir Thomas Baring(1772-1848), was a well-known art-patron and collector. The control of the business passed to his second son,Alexander(1774-1848), better known asLord Ashburton, who had already been highly successful in extending the firm's operations in America, where his marriage with the daughter of William Bingham, a wealthy resident of Philadelphia and United States senator, secured him considerable influence with the American commercial community. From 1806-1835 he represented various constituencies in parliament where he strongly opposed reform. In 1834 he became president of the Board of Trade and master of the mint in Sir Robert Peel's first administration, and the following year was raised to the peerage as Baron Ashburton. His business capacity and intimate acquaintance with American customs and institutions caused his appointment in 1842 as commissioner to the United States to negotiate the settlement of the north-eastern boundary question and other matters in dispute between the two countries, and he concluded in that year at Washington the treaty, commonly known as the Ashburton treaty, by which the frontier between Maine and Canada was fixed. After his death in 1848 the affairs of the house were managed byThomas Baring(1799-1873), the son of Sir Thomas Baring. Thomas Baring represented Huntingdon in parliament from 1844 till his death. His elder brother, SirFrancis Thornhill Baring(1796-1866), sat for Portsmouth from 1826-1865. From 1839-1841 he was chancellor of the exchequer, and from 1849-1852 first lord of the admiralty. In 1866 he was createdBaron Northbrook, the barony being converted in 1876 into an earldom in favour of his eldest son Thomas George Baring (1826-1904). The latter, the 1stEarl of Northbrook, was occupied almost entirely with public affairs, and filled at different times many important official positions. He is best remembered as viceroy of India, which office he held from 1872-1876, but his last public position was first lord of the admiralty (1880-1885). With the death of Thomas Baring, Edward Charles Baring (1828-1897), son of Henry Baring, M.P., and grandson of Sir Francis Baring, became head of the firm of Baring Brothers, and in 1885 was raised to the peerage asBaron Revelstoke. The house of Baring then stood at the height of its prosperity. During the following years a large amount of English capital was advanced to the Argentine Republic, Barings undertaking the loans and guaranteeing the interest. Through the continued default of the Argentine government, Barings became seriously involved, their heavy obligations precipitating a general financial crisis. Towards the end of 1890 it became known that the firm was on the eve of suspending payment, with liabilities amounting to £21,000,000. The prompt action of the Bank of England, which in conjunction with the leading joint-stock banks of the United Kingdom took over these liabilities, averted further disaster, and the firm of Baring Brothers was subsequently reorganized as a limited company with a capital of £1,000,000. Besides those already referred to, various other members of the Baring family have achieved public distinction, notably Charles Baring (1807-1879), bishop of Durham, and Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer (q.v.).
BARING-GOULD, SABINE(1834- ), English novelist, was born at Exeter on the 28th of January 1834. After graduating at Clare College, Cambridge, he spent some years in travel, and became in 1864 curate of Horbury, Yorkshire; then perpetual curate of Dalton, in the same county, in 1867; and in 1871 rector of East Mersea, Essex. On his father's death in 1872 he inherited the estate of Lew Trenchard, North Devon, where his family had been settled for nearly three centuries, and he exchanged his Essex living for the rectory of Lew Trenchard in 1881. He had a ready pen, and began publishing books on one subject or another—fiction, travel, history, folk-lore, religion, mythology, from 1854 onwards. His novelMehalah(1880), the scene of which is laid on the east coast of England, was an excellent story, and among many others may be mentionedJohn Herring(1883), a tale of the west country;Court Royal(1886);Red Spider(1887);The Pennycomequicks(1889);Cheap Jack Zita(1893); andBroom Squire(1896), a Sussex tale. His contributions to the study of topography, antiquities and folk-lore, while popularly written, were also full of serious research and real learning, notably hisBook of Were-wolves(1865),Curious Myths of the Middle Ages(1866),Curious Survivals(1892). He produced at the same time many volumes of sermons and popular theology, and edited (1871-1873)The Sacristy, a quarterly review of ecclesiastical art and literature.
Living the life of the rapidly disappearing English "squarson," and full of cultivated interests, especially in humanizing the local village mind, and investigating and recording the good things of old-time, his many-sided activities were shown in every direction and his literary facility made his work known far and wide. His familiarity with the country-side and his interest in folk-lore were of special utility in recovering and preserving for publication a large mass of English popular song, and in assisting the new English movement for studying and appreciating the old national ballad-music.
BARINGO,a lake of British East Africa, some 30 m. N. of the equator in the eastern rift-valley. It is one of a chain of lakes which stud the floor of the valley and has an elevation of 3325 ft. above the sea. It is about 16 m. long by 9 broad and has an irregular outline, the northern shore being deeply indented. Its waters are brackish. Fed by several small streams it has no outlet. The largest of the rivers which enter it, the Tigrish and the Nyuki, run north through a flat marshy country which extends south of the lake. This district, inhabited by the negro tribe of Njamusi, was by the first explorers called Njemps. It is a fertile grain-growing region containing two considerable villages. The Njamusi are peaceful agriculturists who show marked friendliness to Europeans. N. of the lake rise the Karosi hills; to the E. the land rises in terraces to the edge of the Laikipia escarpment. A characteristic of the country in the neighbourhood of the lake are the "hills" of the termites (white ants). They are hollow columns 10 to 12 ft. high and from 1 ft. to 18 in. broad. The greater kudu, almost unknown elsewhere in East Africa, inhabits the flanks of the Laikipia escarpment to the east of the lake and comes to the foot-hills around Baringo to feed.
The existence of Lake Baringo was first reported in Europe by Ludwig Krapf and J. Rebmann, German missionaries stationed at Mombasa, about 1850; in J. H. Speke's map of the Nile sources (1863) Baringo is confused with Kavirondo Gulf of Victoria Nyanza; it figures in Sir H. M. Stanley's map (1877) as a large sheet of water N.E. of Victoria Nyanza. Joseph Thomson, in his journey through the Masai country in 1883, was the first white man to see the lake and to correct the exaggerated notions as to its size. Native tradition, however, asserts that the lake formerly covered a much larger area.
BARISAL,a town of British India, headquarters of Backergunje district in Eastern Bengal and Assam, situated on a river of the same name. Pop. (1901) 18,978. It is an important centre of river trade, on the steamer route through the Sundarbansfrom Calcutta to the Brahmaputra. It contains a first grade college and several schools. There are a public library, established by subscription in 1858; and a students' union, for helping the sick and poor and promoting the intellectual and physical improvement of boys. Barisal has given its name to a curious physical phenomenon, known as the "Barisal guns," the cause of which has not been satisfactorily explained. These are noises, like the report of cannon, frequently heard in the channels of the delta of the Brahmaputra, at the rising of the tide.
BARIUM(symbol Ba, atomic weight 137.37 [O=16]), one of the metallic chemical elements included in the group of the alkaline earths. It takes its name from the Greekβαρύς(heavy) on account of its presence in barytes or heavy spar which was first investigated in 1602 by V. Casciorolus, a shoemaker of Bologna, who found that after ignition with combustible substances it became phosphorescent, and on this account it was frequently called Bolognian phosphorus. In 1774 K. W. Scheele, in examining a specimen of pyrolusite, found a new substance to be present in the mineral, for on treatment with sulphuric acid it gave an insoluble salt which was afterwards shown to be identical with that contained in heavy spar. Barium occurs chiefly in the form of barytes or heavy spar, BaSO4, and witherite, BaCO3, and to a less extent in baryto-calcite, baryto-celestine, and various complex silicates. The metal is difficult to isolate, and until recently it may be doubted whether the pure metal had been obtained. Sir H. Davy tried to electrolyse baryta, but was unsuccessful; later attempts were made by him using barium chloride in the presence of mercury. In this way he obtained an amalgam, from which on distilling off the mercury the barium was obtained as a silver white residue. R. Bunsen in 1854 electrolysed a thick paste of barium chloride and dilute hydrochloric acid in the presence of mercury, at 100° C., obtaining a barium amalgam, from which the mercury was separated by a process of distillation. A. N. Guntz (Comptes rendus, 1901, 133, p. 872) electrolyses a saturated solution of barium chloride using a mercury cathode and obtains a 3% barium amalgam; this amalgam is transferred to an iron boat in a wide porcelain tube and the tube slowly heated electrically, a good yield of pure barium being obtained at about 1000° C. The metal when freshly cut possesses a silver white lustre, is a little harder than lead, and is extremely easily oxidized on exposure; it is soluble in liquid ammonia, and readily attacks both water and alcohol.
Three oxides of barium are known, namely, the monoxide, BaO, the dioxide, BaO2, and a suboxide, obtained by heating BaO with magnesium in a vacuum to 1100° (Guntz,loc. cit., 1906, p. 359). The monoxide is formed when the metal burns in air, but is usually prepared by the ignition of the nitrate, oxygen and oxides of nitrogen being liberated. It can also be obtained by the ignition of an intimate mixture of the carbonate and carbon, and in small quantities by the ignition of the iodate. It is a greyish coloured solid, which combines very energetically with water to form the hydroxide, much heat being evolved during the combination; on heating to redness in a current of oxygen it combines with the oxygen to form the dioxide, which at higher temperatures breaks up again into the monoxide and oxygen.
Barium hydroxide, Ba(OH)2, is a white powder that can be obtained by slaking the monoxide with the requisite quantity of water, but it is usually made on the large scale by heating heavy spar with small coal whereby a crude barium sulphide is obtained. This sulphide is then heated in a current of moist carbon dioxide, barium carbonate being formed, BaS + H2O + CO2= BaCO3+ H2S, and finally the carbonate is decomposed by a current of superheated steam, BaCO3+ H2O = Ba(OH)2+ CO2, leaving a residue of the hydroxide. It is a white powder moderately soluble in cold water, readily soluble in hot water, the solution possessing an alkaline reaction and absorbing carbon dioxide readily. The solution, known asbaryta-water, finds an extensive application in practical chemistry, being used in gas-analysis for the determination of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; and also being used in organic chemistry as a hydrolysing agent for the decomposition of complex ureides and substituted aceto-acetic esters, while E. Fischer has used it as a condensing agent in the preparation ofα- andβ-acrose from acrolein dibromide. A saturated solution of the hydroxide deposits on cooling a hydrated form Ba(OH)2· 8H2O, as colourless quadratic prisms, which on exposure to air lose seven molecules of water of crystallization.
Barium dioxide, BaO2, can be prepared as shown above, or in the hydrated condition by the addition of excess of baryta-water to hydrogen peroxide solution, when it is precipitated in the crystalline condition as BaO2· 8H2O. These crystals on heating to 130° C. lose the water of crystallization and leave a residue of the anhydrous peroxide. In the Brin process for the manufacture of oxygen, barium dioxide is obtained as an intermediate product by heating barium monoxide with air under pressure. It is a grey coloured powder which is readily decomposed by dilute acids with the production of hydrogen peroxide.
Barium chloride, BaCl2· 2H2O, can be obtained by dissolving witherite in dilute hydrochloric acid, and also from heavy spar by ignition in a reverberatory furnace with a mixture of coal, limestone and calcium chloride, the barium chloride being extracted from the fused mass by water, leaving a residue of insoluble calcium sulphide. The chloride crystallizes in colourless rhombic tables of specific gravity 3.0 and is readily soluble in water, but is almost insoluble in concentrated hydrochloric acid and in absolute alcohol. It can be obtained in the anhydrous condition by heating it gently to about 120° C. It has a bitter taste and is a strong poison. Barium bromide is prepared by saturating baryta-water or by decomposing barium carbonate with hydrobromic acid. It crystallizes as BaBr2· 2H2O isomorphous with barium chloride. Barium bromate, Ba(BrO3)2, can be prepared by the action of excess of bromine on baryta-water, or by decomposing a boiling aqueous solution of 100 parts of potassium bromate with a similar solution of 74 parts of crystallized barium chloride. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system, and separates from its aqueous solution as Ba(BrO3)2· H2O. On heating, it begins to decompose at 260-265° C. Barium chlorate, Ba(ClO3)2, is obtained by adding barium chloride to sodium chlorate solution; on concentration of the solution sodium chloride separates first, and then on further evaporation barium chlorate crystallizes out and can be purified by recrystallization. It can also be obtained by suspending barium carbonate in boiling water and passing in chlorine. It crystallizes in monoclinic prisms of composition Ba(ClO3)2· H2O, and begins to decompose on being heated to 250° C. Barium iodate, Ba(IO3)2, is obtained by the action of excess of iodic acid on hot caustic baryta solution or by adding sodium iodate to barium chloride solution. It crystallizes in monoclinic prisms of composition Ba(IO3)2· H2O, and is only very sparingly soluble in cold water.
Barium carbide, BaC2, is prepared by a method similar to that in use for the preparation of calcium carbide (seeAcetylene). L. Maquenne has also obtained it by distilling a mixture of barium amalgam and carbon in a stream of hydrogen. Barium sulphide, BaS, is obtained by passing sulphuretted hydrogen over heated barium monoxide, or better by fusion of the sulphate with a small coal. It is a white powder which is readily decomposed by water with the formation of the hydroxide and hydrosulphide. The phosphorescence of the sulphide obtained by heating the thiosulphate is much increased by adding uranium, bismuth, or thorium before ignition (J. pr. Chem., 1905, ii. p. 196).
Barium sulphate, BaSO4, is the most abundant of the naturally occurring barium compounds (seeBarytes) and can be obtained artificially by the addition of sulphuric acid or any soluble sulphate to a solution of a soluble barium salt, when it is precipitated as an amorphous white powder of specific gravity 4.5. It is practically insoluble in water, and is only very slightly soluble in dilute acids; it is soluble to some extent, when freshly prepared, in hot concentrated sulphuric acid, and on cooling the solution, crystals of composition BaSO4· H2SO4are deposited. It is used as a pigment under the name of "permanent white" orblanc fixe.
Barium nitride, Ba3N2, is obtained as a brownish mass bypassing nitrogen over heated barium amalgam. It is decomposed by water with evolution of hydrogen, and on heating in a current of carbonic oxide forms barium cyanide (L. Maquenne). Barium amide, Ba(NH2)2, is obtained from potassammonium and barium bromide.
Barium nitrate, Ba(NO3)2, is prepared by dissolving either the carbonate or sulphide in dilute nitric acid, or by mixing hot saturated solutions of barium chloride and sodium nitrate. It crystallizes in octahedra, having a specific gravity of 3.2, and melts at 597° C. (T. Carnelley). It is decomposed by heat, and is largely used in pyrotechny for the preparation of green fire. Barium carbonate, BaCO3, occurs rather widely distributed as witherite (q.v.), and may be prepared by the addition of barium chloride to a hot solution of ammonium carbonate, when it is precipitated as a dense white powder of specific gravity 4.3; almost insoluble in water.
Barium and its salts can be readily detected by the yellowish-green colour they give when moistened with hydrochloric acid and heated in the Bunsenflame, or by observation of their spectra, when two characteristic green lines are seen. In solution, barium salts may be detected by the immediate precipitate they give on the addition of calcium sulphate (this serves to distinguish barium salts from calcium salts), and by the yellow precipitate of barium chromate formed on the addition of potassium chromate. Barium is estimated quantitatively by conversion into the sulphate. The atomic weight of the element has been determined by C. Marignac by the conversion of barium chloride into barium sulphate, and also by a determination of the amount of silver required to precipitate exactly a known weight of the chloride; the mean value obtained being 136.84; T. W. Richards (Zeit. anorg. Chem., 1893, 6, p. 89), by determining the equivalent of barium chloride and bromide to silver, obtained the value 137.44. For the relation of barium to radium, seeRadioactivity.
BARKER, EDMUND HENRY(1788-1839), English classical scholar, was born at Hollym in Yorkshire. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a scholar in 1807, but left the university without a degree, being prevented by religious scruples from taking the oath then required. He had previously obtained (in 1809) the Browne medal for Greek and Latin epigrams. After acting as amanuensis to the famous Samuel Parr, the vicar of Hatton in Warwickshire, he married and settled down at Thetford in Norfolk, where he lived for about twenty-five years. He was in the habit of adding the initials O. T. N. (of Thetford, Norfolk) to the title-page of his published works. In later life he became involved in a law-suit in connexion with a will, and thus exhausted his means. In 1837-1838 he was a prisoner for debt in the king's bench and in the Fleet. He died in London on the 21st of March 1839. Barker was a prolific writer on classical and other subjects. In addition to contributing to the Classical Journal, he edited portions of several classical authors for the use of schools. He was one of the first commentators to write notes in English instead of Latin. In a volume of letters he disputed the claims of Sir Philip Francis to the authorship of the Letters of Junius; hisParriana(1828) is a vast and ill-digested compilation of literary anecdotes and criticisms. He also saw through the press the English edition of Lemprière'sClassical Dictionary(revised by Anthon) and of Webster'sEnglish Dictionary. It is as a lexicographer, however, that Barker is chiefly known. While at Hatton, he conceived the design of a new edition of Stephanus'sThesaurus Graecae Linguae. The work was undertaken by A. J. Valpy, and, although not expressly stated, it was understood that Barker was the responsible editor. When a few parts had appeared, it was severely criticized in theQuarterly Review(xxii., 1820) by Blomfield; the result was the curtailment of the original plan of the work and the omission of Barker's name in connexion with it. It was completed in twelve volumes (1816-1828). The strictures of theQuarterlywere answered by Barker in hisAristarchus Anti-Blomfieldianus, which, although unconvincing, was in turn answered by Bishop Monk. He also published notes on theEtymologicum Gudianum, and collaborated with Professor Dunbar of Edinburgh in a Greek and English Lexicon (1831). Theeditio princeps(1820) of the treatise attributed to Arcadius,Περὶ τόνων, was published by him from a Paris MS. Continental scholars entertained a more favourable opinion of him than those of his own country. He expressed contempt for the minute verbal criticism of the Porsonian school, in which he was himself deficient.
An account of his life will be found in theGentleman's Magazinefor May 1839; see alsoNotes and Queries(6th series, xii. p. 443), where a full list of his works is given.
BARKER'S MILL,a mechanical contrivance invented by a Dr Barker about the end of the 17th century. It consisted of a hollow vertical cylinder, provided with a number of horizontal arms fitted with lateral apertures; the contrivance is mounted so as to rotate about the vertical axis. By allowing water to enter the vertical tube, a rotation, due to the discharge through the lateral orifices, is set up.
BARKING,a market-town in the Romford parliamentary division of Essex, England, on the river Roding near its junction with the Thames, 8 m. E. of Fenchurch Street station and Liverpool Street station, London, by the London, Tilbury & Southend and Great Eastern railways. Pop. of urban district of Barking town (1891) 14,301; (1901) 21,547. The church of St Margaret is Norman with perpendicular additions, and contains many monuments of interest. Barking was celebrated for its nunnery, one of the oldest and richest in England, founded about 670 by Erkenwald, bishop of London, and restored in 970 by King Edgar, about a hundred years after its destruction by the Danes. The abbess was a baronessex officio, and the revenue at the dissolution of the monasteries was £1084. There remains a perpendicular turreted gateway. There is also an ancient market-house, used as a town-hall. Victoria Gardens form a public pleasure-ground, and there are recreation grounds. The Gaslight and Coke Company's works at Beckton are in the parish, and also extensive rubber works. At the mouth of the Roding (Barking Creek) are great sewage works, receiving the Northern Outfall sewer from London. There are also chemical works, and some shipping trade, principally in timber and fish. Barking is a suffragan bishopric in the diocese of St Albans.
BARKLY EAST,a town of Cape province, South Africa, capital of a district of the same name, and 80 m. by rail E.S.E. of Aliwal North. The town lies north of the Drakensberg on the Kraai tributary of the Orange river at an elevation of 5831 ft. The district has an area of 1564 sq. m. and a population (1904) of 8490, of whom 50% are whites. The chief occupation followed is sheep-farming, the pasturage being excellent. Like Barkly West, the town and district are named after Sir Henry Barkly, governor of Cape Colony, 1870-1877.
BARKLY WEST,a town of Cape province, South Africa, 21 m. N.W. of Kimberley, capital of a district and of an electoral division of the same name in Griqualand West. It is built on the right bank of the Vaal, here spanned by a bridge. Pop. (1904) 1037. Originally called Klipdrift, the town was the first founded by the diggers after the discovery in 1867 of diamonds along the valley of the Vaal, and it had for some years a large floating population. On the discovery of the "dry diggings" at Kimberley, the majority of the diggers removed thither. Barkly West remains, however, the centre of the alluvial diamonds industry. The diamonds of this district are noted for their purity and lustre, and are generally associated with other crystals—garnets, agates, quartz and chalcedonies.
Barkly West electoral division includes the whole of Griqualand West save the Kimberley division. It is divided into the fiscal districts of Barkly West, Hay and Herbert, with a total pop. (1904) of 48,388, of whom 12,170 are whites (seeGriqualand).
BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT,one of the most popular and widely disseminated of medieval religious romances, which owes its importance and interest to the fact that it is a Christianized version of the story of Gautama Siddharta, the Buddha, with which it agrees not only in broad outline but in essential details.
The Christian story first appears in Greek among the works of John (q.v.) of Damascus, who flourished in the early part of the 8th century, and who, before he adopted the monastic life, hadheld high office at the court of the caliph Abū Ja‛far al-Mansūr, as his father Sergius is said to have done before him.
The outline of the Greek story is as follows:—St Thomas had converted the people of India, and after the eremitic life originated in Egypt, many Indians adopted it. But a powerful pagan king arose who hated and persecuted the Christians, especially the ascetics. After this king, Abenner by name, had long been childless, a boy greatly desired and matchless in beauty, was born to him and received the name of Josaphat. The king, in his joy, summons astrologers to predict the child's destiny. They foretell glory and prosperity beyond those of all his predecessors. One sage, most learned of all, assents, but intimates that the scene of this glory will be, not the paternal kingdom, but another infinitely more exalted, and that the child will adopt the faith which his father persecutes.
The boy shows a thoughtful and devout turn. King Abenner, troubled by this and by the remembrance of the prediction, selects a secluded city, in which he causes a splendid palace to be built, where his son should abide, attended only by tutors and servants in the flower of youth and health. No stranger was to have access, and the boy was to be cognizant of none of the sorrows of humanity, such as poverty, disease, old age or death, but only of what was pleasant, so that he should have no inducement to think of the future life; nor was he ever to hear a word of Christ and His religion.
Prince Josaphat grows up in this seclusion, acquires all kinds of knowledge and exhibits singular endowments. At length, on his urgent prayer, the king reluctantly permits him to pass the limits of the palace, after having taken all precautions to keep painful objects out of sight. But through some neglect of orders, the prince one day encounters a leper and a blind man, and asks of his attendants with pain and astonishment what such a spectacle should mean. These, they tell him, are ills to which man is liable. Shall all men have such ills? he asks. And in the end he returns home in deep depression. Another day he falls in with a decrepit old man, and stricken with dismay at the sight, renews his questions and hears for the first time of death. And in how many years, continues the prince, does this fate befall man? and must he expect death as inevitable? Is therenoway of escape? No means of eschewing this wretched state of decay? The attendants reply as may be imagined; and Josaphat goes home more pensive than ever, dwelling on the certainty of death and on what shall be thereafter.
At this time Barlaam, an eremite of great sanctity and knowledge, dwelling in the wilderness of Sennaritis, divinely warned, travels to India in the disguise of a merchant, and gains access to Prince Josaphat, to whom he imparts the Christian doctrine and commends the monastic life. Suspicion arises and Barlaam departs. But all attempts to shake the prince's convictions fail. As a last resource the king sends for Theudas, a magician, who removes the prince's attendants and substitutes seductive girls; but all their blandishments are resisted through prayer. The king abandons these efforts and associates his son in the government. The prince uses his power to promote religion, and everything prospers in his hands. At last Abenner himself yields to the faith, and after some years of penitence dies. Josaphat surrenders the kingdom to a friend called Barachias and departs for the wilderness. After two years of painful search and much buffeting by demons he finds Barlaam. The latter dies, and Josaphat survives as a hermit many years. King Barachias afterwards arrives, and transfers the bodies of the two saints to India, where they are the source of many miracles.
Now this story is,mutatis mutandis, the story of Buddha. It will suffice to recall the Buddha's education in a secluded palace, his encounter successively with a decrepit old man, with a man in mortal disease and poverty, with a dead body, and, lastly, with a religious recluse radiant with peace and dignity, and his consequent abandonment of his princely state for the ascetic life in the jungle. Some of the correspondences in the two stories are most minute, and even the phraseology, in which some of the details of Josaphat's history are described, almost literally renders the Sanskrit of theLalita Vistara. More than that, the very word Joasaph or Josaphat (Arabic,Yūdasatf) is a corruption of Bodisat due to a confusion between the Arabic letters for Y and B, and Bodisatva is a common title for the Buddha in the many birth-stories that clustered round the life of the sage. There are good reasons for thinking that the Christian story did not originate with John of Damascus, and a strong case has been made out by Zotenberg that it reflects the religious struggles and disputes of the early 7th century in Syria, and that the Greek text was edited by a monk of Saint Saba named John, his version being the source of all later texts and translations. How much older than this the Christian story is, we cannot tell, but it is interesting to remember that it embodies in the form of a speech the "Apology" of the 2nd-century philosopher Aristides. After its appearance among the writings of John of Damascus, it was incorporated with Simeon Metaphrastes'Lives of the Saints(c. 950), and thence gained great vogue, being translated into almost every European language. A famous Icelandic version was made for Prince Hakon early in the 13th century. In the East, too, it took on new life and Catholic missionaries freely used it in their propaganda. Thus a Tagala (Philippine) translation was brought out at Manila in 1712. Besides furnishing the early playwrights with material for miracle plays, it has supplied episodes and apologues to many a writer, including Boccaccio, John Gower and Shakespeare. Rudolph of Ems about 1220 expanded it into a long poem of 16,000 lines, celebrating the victory of Christian over heathen teaching. The heroes of the romance have even attained saintly rank. Their names were inserted by Petrus de Natalibus in hisCatalogus Sanctorum(c. 1380), and Cardinal Baronius included them in the officialMartyrologiumauthorized by Sixtus V. (1585-1590) under the date of the 27th of November. In the Orthodox Eastern Church "the holy Josaph, son of Abener, king of India" is allotted the 26th of August. Thus unwittingly Gautama the Buddha has come to official recognition as a saint in two great branches of the Catholic Church, and no one will say that he does not deserve the honour. A church dedicatedDivo Josaphatin Palermo is probably not the only one of its kind.
The identity of the stories of Buddha and St Josaphat was recognized by the historian of Portuguese India, Diogo do Couto (1542-1616), as may be seen in his history (Dec. v. liv. vi. cap. 2). In modern times the honour belongs to Laboulaye (1859), Felix Liebrecht in 1860 putting it beyond dispute. Subsequent researches have been carried out by Zotenberg, Max Müller, Rhys Davids, Braunholtz and Joseph Jacobs, who published hisBarlaam and Josaphatin 1896.
BAR-LE-DUC,a town of north-eastern France, capital of the department of Meuse, 50 m. E.S.E. of Châlons-sur-Marne, on the main line of the Eastern railway between that town and Nancy. Pop. (1906) 14,624. The lower, more modern and busier part of the town extends along a narrow valley, shut in by wooded or vine-clad hills, and is traversed throughout its length by the Ornain, which is crossed by several bridges. It is limited towards the north-east by the canal from the Marne to the Rhine, on the south-west by a small arm of the Ornain, called the Canal des Usines, on the left bank of which the upper town (Ville Haute) is situated. The Ville Haute, which is reached by staircases and steep narrow thoroughfares, is intersected by a long, quiet street, bordered by houses of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. In this quarter are the remains (16th century) of the château of the dukes of Bar, dismantled in 1670, the old clock-tower and the college, built in the latter half of the 16th century. Its church of St Pierre (14th and 15th centuries) contains a skilfully-carved effigy in white stone of a half-decayed corpse, the work of Ligier Richier (1500-1572), a pupil of Michelangelo—erected to the memory of René de Châlons (d. 1544). The lower town contains the official buildings and two or three churches, but these are of little interest. Among the statues of distinguished natives of the town is one to Charles Nicolas Oudinot, whose house serves as the hôtel-de-ville. Bar-le-Duc has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade arbitrators, a lycée, a training-college for girls, a chamber of commerce, a branch of the Bank of France and an art museum. The industries of the town include iron-founding and the manufacture of machinery, corsets, hosiery,flannel goods, jam and wall-paper, and brewing, cotton spinning and weaving, leather-dressing and dyeing. Wine, timber and iron are important articles of commerce.
Bar-le-Duc was at one time the seat of the countship, later duchy, of Bar, the history of which is given below. Though probably of ancient origin, the town was unimportant till the 10th century when it became the residence of the counts.
Counts and Dukes of Bar. In the middle of the 10th century the territory of Bar (Barrois) formed a dependency of the Empire. In the 11th century its lords were only counts by title; they belonged to the house of Mousson (which also possessed the countships of Montbéliard and Ferrette), and usually fought in the French ranks, while their neighbours, the dukes of Lorraine, adhered to the German side. Theobald I., count of Bar, was an ally of Philip Augustus, as was also his son Henry II., who distinguished himself at the battle of Bouvines in 1214. But sometimes the counts of Bar bore arms against France. In 1301 Henry III. having made an alliance with Edward I. of England, whose daughter he had married, was vanquished by Philip the Fair, who forced him to do homage for a part of Barrois, situated west of the Meuse, which was calledBarrois mouvant. In 1354 Robert, count of Bar, who had married the daughter of King John, was made marquis of Pont-à-Mousson by the emperor Charles IV. and took the title of duke of Bar. His successor, Edward III., was killed at Agincourt in 1415. In 1419 Louis of Bar, brother of the last-named, a cardinal and bishop of Châlons, gave the duchy of Bar to René of Anjou, the grandson of his sister Yolande, who married Isabella, duchess of Lorraine. Yolande of Anjou, who in 1444 had married Ferri of Lorraine, count of Vaudémont, became heiress of Nicholas of Anjou, duke of Calabria and of Lorraine, in 1473, and of René of Anjou, duke of Bar, in 1480; thus Lorraine, with Barrois added to it, once more returned to the family of its ancient dukes. United with Lorraine to France in 1634, Barrois remained, except for short intervals, part of the royal domain. It was granted in 1738 to Stanislaus Leszczynski, ex-king of Poland, and on his death in 1766 was once more attached to the crown of France.
(M. P.*)
BARLETTA(anc.Barduli), a seaport town and episcopal see of Apulia, Italy, on the E.S.E. coast, in the province of Bari, 34½ m. W.N.W. of Bari by rail. Pop. (1901) 42,022. Its importance dates from the time of the Hohenstaufen. The Gothic church of S. Sepolcro was built at the close of the 12th century, and the Romanesque cathedral was begun at the same period, but added to later. In front of the former church stands a bronze statue, 14 ft. in height, of the emperor Heraclius. The castle behind the cathedral dates from 1537. The harbour is good. It was cleared by 508 sailing-vessels and 461 steamers, the latter with a total tonnage of 364,904 in 1904; the exports were of the value of £180,699 (principally wine, sulphur, oil, tartar and tartaric acid), and the imports £92,486 (coal, timber and sundries).
In the neighbourhood (between Andria and Corato), during the siege of Barletta by the French in 1503, the town being defended by the Spanish army, a combat took place between thirteen picked knights of Italy and France, which resulted in favour of the former: it has been celebrated by Massimo d' Azeglio in hisDisfida di Barletta. Seven miles to the N.W. are the salt-works of Barletta, now known under the name of Margherita di Savoia.
(T. As.)
BARLEY(Hordeum sativum), a member of the grass family, and an important cereal which belongs peculiarly to temperate regions. It originated from a wild species,H. spontaneum, a native of western Asia and has been cultivated from the earliest times. Three subspecies or races are recognized, (i.)H. sativum, subsp.distichum(described by Linnaeus as a distinct species,H. distichon), two-rowed barley. Only the middle spikelet of each triplet is fertile; the ear has therefore only two longitudinal rows of grain, and the spikes are strongly compressed laterally. This approaches most nearly to the wild stock, from which it is distinguished by the non-jointed axis and somewhat shorter awns. This is the race most commonly grown in the British Isles and in central Europe, and includes a large number of sub-races and varieties among which are the finest malting-barleys. The chief sub-races are (a) peacock, fan or battledore barley, described by Linnaeus as a distinct species,H. zeocriton, with erect short ears about 2½ in. long, broad at the base and narrow at the tip, suggesting an open fan or peacock's tail; (b) erect-eared barleys (var.erectum) with erect broad ears and closely-packed plump grains; (c) nodding barleys (var.nutans). The ripe ears of the last hang so as to become almost parallel with the stem; they are narrower and longer than in (b), owing to the grains being placed farther apart on the rachis; it includes the Chevalier variety, one of the best for malting purposes, (ii.)H. sativum, subsp.hexastichum, six-rowed barley (theH. hexastichonof Linnaeus). All the flowers of each triplet of spikelets on both sides of the rachis are fertile and produce ripe fruits; hence the ear produces six longitudinal rows of grain. The ears are short, erect, and the grain thin and coarse; the straw is also short. It is a hardy race, but owing to the poor quality of the grain is rarely met with in Great Britain, (iii.)H. sativum, subsp.vulgare, bere, bigg or four-rowed barley (theH. vulgareof Linnaeus). All the flowers of each triplet are fertile as in (ii.), but the rows are not arranged regularly at equal distances round the rachis. The central fruits of each triplet form two regular rows, but the lateral spikelets form not four straight single rows as in (ii.), but two regular double rows, the whole ear appearing irregularly four-rowed. This race seems to be of later origin than the others. The ears are erect, about 2½ in. long, the grains thinner and longer than in the two-rowed race, and the awns stiff and firmly adhering to the flowering glume. The var.pallidumis the barley most frequently cultivated in northern Europe and northern Asia. This race was formerly used for malt and beer, but owing to its larger amount of gluten as compared with starch it is less adapted for brewing than the two-rowed sorts. To this belong the varieties naked barley (H. coelesteandH. nudum) and Himalayan barley (H. trifurcatumandH. aegiceras). In both the fruits fall out freely from the glume, and in the latter the awns are three-pronged and shorter than the grain.
Barley is the most hardy of all cereal grains, its limit of cultivation extending farther north than any other; and, at the same time, it can be profitably cultivated in sub-tropical countries. The opinion of Pliny, that it is the most ancient aliment of mankind, appears to be well-founded, for no less than three varieties have been found in the lake dwellings of Switzerland, in deposits belonging to the Stone Period. According to Professor Heer these varieties are the common two-rowed (H. distichum), the large six-rowed (H. hexastichum, var.densum), and the small six-rowed (H. hexastichum, var.sanctum). The last variety is both the most ancient and the most commonly found, and is the sacred barley of antiquity, ears of which are frequently represented plaited in the hair of the goddess Ceres, besides being figured on ancient coins. The cultivation of barley in ancient Egypt is indicated in Exod. ix. 31. Till within recent times barley formed an important source of food in northern countries, and barley cakes are still to some extent eaten. Owing, however, to its poverty in that form of nitrogenous compound called gluten, so abundant in wheat, barley-flour cannot be baked into vesiculated bread; still it is a highly-nutritious substance, the salts it contains having a high proportion of phosphoric acid. The following is the composition of barley-meal according to Von Bibra, omitting the salts:—
Water
15
per cent.
Nitrogenous compounds
12.981
"
Gum
6.744
"
Sugar
3.200
"
Starch
59.950
"
Fat
2.170
"
Barley is now chiefly cultivated for malting (seeMalt) to prepare spirits and beer (seeBrewing), but it is also largely employed in domestic cookery. For the latter purpose the hard, somewhat flinty grains are preferable, and they are prepared by grinding off the outer cuticle which forms "pot barley." When the attrition is carried further, so that the grain is reduced to small round pellets, it is termed "pearl barley." Patent barley is either pot or pearl barley reduced to flour. Under the namedecoctum hordei, a preparation of barley is included in theBritish Pharmacopoeia, which is of value as a demulcent and emollient drink in febrile and inflammatory disorders.
Cultivation.—Apart from the growth-habits of the plant itself, the consideration that chiefly determines the routine of barley cultivation is the demand on the part of the maltster for uniformity of sample. Less care is required in its cultivation when it is intended for feeding live-stock. It is essential that the grains on the maltster's floor should germinate simultaneously, hence at the time of reaping, the whole crop must be as nearly as possible in the same stage of maturity. On rich soils the crop is liable to grow too rapidly and yield a coarse, uneven sample, consequently the best barley is grown on light, open and preferably calcareous soils, while if the condition of the soil is too high it is often reduced by growing wheat before the barley.
Barley (seeAgriculture,Crops and Cropping) is a rapidly-growing and shallow-rooted plant. The upper layer of the soil must therefore be free from weeds, finely pulverized and stocked with a readily-available supply of nutriment. In most rotations barley is grown after turnips, or some other "cleaning" crop, with or without the interposition of a wheat crop. The roots are fed off by sheep during autumn and early winter, after which the ground is ploughed to a depth of 3 or 4 in. only in order not to put the layer of soil fertilized by the sheep beyond reach of the plant. The ground is then left unworked and open to the crumbling influence of frost till towards the end of winter, when it is stirred with the cultivator followed by the harrows, or in some cases ploughed with a shallow furrow. The seed, which should be plump, light in colour, with a thin skin covered by fine wrinkles, is sown in March and early April[1]at the rate of from 8 to 12 pecks to the acre and lightly harrowed in. As even distribution at a uniform depth is necessary, the drill is preferred to the broadcast-seeder for barley sowing. In early districts seeding may take place as early as February, provided a fine tilth is obtainable, but it rarely extends beyond the end of April. If artificial manures are used, a usual dressing consists of 2 or 3 cwt. of superphosphate to the acre at the time of sowing, followed, if the ground is in poor condition, by 1 cwt. of nitrate of soda when the plant is showing. Nitrogen must, however, be applied with caution as it makes the barley rich in albumen, and highly albuminous barley keeps badly and easily loses its germinating capacity. Farm-yard manure should also be avoided. After-cultivation may comprise rolling, harrowing (to preserve the fineness of the tilth) and in some districts hoeing. Barley is cut, either with scythe or machine, when it is quite ripe with the ears bending over. The crop is often allowed to lie loose for a day or two, owing to the belief that sunshine and dews or even showers mellow it and improve its colour. It may even be stacked without tying into sheaves, though this course involves greater expenditure of labour in carrying and afterwards in threshing. There is a prejudice against the use of the binder in reaping barley, as it is impossible to secure uniformity of colour in the grain when the stalks are tightly tied in the sheaf, and the sun has not free access to those on the inside. In any case it must not be stacked while damp, and if cut by machine is therefore sometimes tied in sheaves and set up in stocks as in the case of wheat. The above sketch indicates the general principles of barley-cultivation, but in practice they are often modified by local custom or farming exigencies.
Barley is liable to smut and the other fungus diseases which attack wheat (q.v.), and the insect pests which prey on the two plants are also similar. The larvae of the ribbon-footed corn-fly (Chlorops taeniopus) caused great injury to the barley crop in Great Britain in 1893, when the plant was weakened by extreme drought. A fair crop of barley yields about 36 bushels (56 lb to the bushel) per acre, but under the best conditions 40 and 50 bushels may be obtained. The yield of straw is from 15 to 20 cwt. per acre. Barley-straw is considered inferior both as fodder and litter.