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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Barley-corn

From Wikisource

BARLEY-CORN, a grain of barley, and thus a measure taken from the length of a grain of barley, three of which (sometimes four) were considered to make up an inch. The barley-corn has been personified as representing the malt liquor made from barley, as in Burns’s song “John Barleycorn.”