Barley is at present extensively cultivated in the temperate districts and islands of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.  In Spain, Sicily, the Canaries, Azores and Madeira, two crops are produced in a year.  In North America its growth is principally confined to Mexico, the middle, western, and northern States of the Union, and to the British North American provinces.  The introduction of barley into the American colonies may be traced back to the period of their settlement.  By the year 1648 it was raised in abundance in Virginia, but soon after its culture was suffered to decline, in consequence of the more profitable and increased production of tobacco.  It has also been sparingly cultivated in the regions of the middle and northern States for malting and distillation, and has been employed, after being malted, as a substitute for rice.

Barley, like wheat, has been cultivated in Syria and Egypt for more than 3,000 years, and it was not until after the Romans adopted the use of wheaten bread, that they fed their stock with this grain.  It is evidently a native of a warm climate, as it is known to be the most productive in a mild season, and will grow within the tropics at an elevation of 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the level of the sea.  It is one of the staple crops of northern and mountainous Europe and Asia.  It is the corn that, next to rice, gives the greatest weight of flour per acre, and it may be eaten with no other preparation than that of boiling.  It requires little or no dressing when it is sent to the mill, having no husk, and consequently produces no bran.  In this country barley is chiefly used for malting and distilling purposes.  In the year 1850, 40,745,050 bushels of malt paid duty, the number of maltsters in the United Kingdom being from 8,000 to 9,000.  About one and a half million quarters of barley were imported in 1849, and a little over a million quarters in 1850, principally from Denmark and Prussia.  The counties in England where this grain is chiefly cultivated are Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Bedford, Herts, Leicester, and Nottingham.  The produce of barley on land well prepared, is from thirty to fifty bushels or more per statute acre, weighing from 45 to 55 lbs. per bushel, according to quality.  It is said to contain 65 per cent. of nutritive matter, while wheat contains 78 per cent.

The estimated average produce of barley in this country may be stated as follows:—­

Acres.               Crop. 
England            1,500,000           6,375,000
Ireland              320,000           1,120,000
Scotland             450,000           1,800,000
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2,270,000          9,295,000

The average produce per acre, in the United Kingdom, is 41/4 quarters in England, 31/2 in Ireland, and 4 in Scotland.  The prices of barley per quarter have ranged, in England, from 36s. 5d. in 1840, to 27s. 6d. in 1842.  In 1847 barley reached 44s. 2d., and gradually declined to 23s. 5d, in 1850.