1. The first requirement in the production of any crop is to see that soil conditions are as close to the optimum as possible. Barley prefers well-drained soils, light to medium in texture with a high pH

USES AND CARE OF SOILS
Soils are used in a great variety of ways, agriculture being the leading soil use.
There has always been great variation in the quality of soils available for agriculture. In most instances, the better soils are used for crops, and the less suitable ones are kept for pastures or timberlands.
Properties that determine the agricultural quality of soils include: 1) ability to produce high crop yields under good management and careful handling; 2) the ease with which they can be used careful handling; 2) the ease which they can be used profitably; 3) the amount and kind of care they require. Good soils respond well to proper management, which involves correct cropping practices, use of fertilizers, and effective protection against damage. Without good care all crop land deteriorates with continuous use. The loss that results from improper care of good soils is greater than from improper care of poor soils, since the former are more valuable. Nevertheless, it is highly important to give the best possible care to all soils, and particularly to the best soils. This is one the first essentials of good farming methods.
The systemizing alternating of crops from field to field is known as crop rotation, which is one of the methods of soil conservation. A good rotation system consists of adjusting the crop arrangement to the physical nature of the land and, in the same time, maintaining a balanced economic farming program. Rotation implies the growing of more than one crop on a farm. In other words, rotation and diversification go hand in hand.
Since no two crops make identical demands on the soil, one crop may require excessive amounts of a given nutrient which another crop may be able to supply. For example, legumes return nitrogen to the soil, but most other crops require more nitrogen than the soil can normally supply. Thus a rotation program involving clovers and other legumes combined with cotton, corn, small grains, and other legume combined with cotton, corn, small grains, and other heavy users of nitrogen may meet most nitrogen requirements.