Barley is declared by historians as the oldest of all cultivated cereals. It seems to have been the main factory of bread at the old Hebrews, Greeks and Romans. Jews in particular grain held in high regard and sacred history uses usually interchangeably with wheat, speaking of the fruits of the Earth.

Among the early Greeks and Romans, barley was almost the only food of the common people and the soldiers. The flour was made into gruel, after the following recipe: "Dry, near the fire or in the oven, twenty pounds of barley flour, then parch it. Add three pounds of linseed meal, half a pound of coriander seeds, two ounces of salt, and the water necessary."

If the dishes are so delicious that you want, little millet was also added to give a paste more "cohesion and delicacy." Whole barley is also used as food, in this case was first dried, which still is in the Preparing the way some parts of Palestine and many districts in India, also in the Canary Islands, where he is known as gofio.

In the time of Charles I, barley meal took the place of wheat almost entirely as the food of the common people in England. In some parts of Europe, India, and other Eastern countries, it is still largely consumed as the ordinary farinaceous food of the peasantry and soldiers. The early settlers of New England also largely used it for bread making.

Barley is less nutritious than wheat, and to many people is less agreeable in flavor. It is likewise somewhat inferior in point of digestibility. Its starch cells being less soluble, they offer more resistance to the gastric juice.

There are several distinct species of barley, but that most commonly cultivated is designated as two-rowed, or two-eared barley. In general structure, the barley grain resembles wheat and oats.

Simply deprived of its outer husk, the grain is termed Scotch milled or pot barley . Subjected still further to the process by which the fibrous outer coat of the grain is removed, it constitutes what is known as pearl barley . Pearl barley ground into flour is known as patent barley .

Barley flour, owing to the fact that it contains so small a proportion of gluten, needs to be mixed with wheaten flour for bread-making purposes. When added in small quantity to whole-wheat bread, it has a tendency to keep the loaf moist, and is thought by some to improve the flavor.

Most general-purpose made of maize as a food, in the shape of Pearl or Scottish barley. When they are well cooked barley requires approximately two hours for digestion.