"Generally speaking, I'd say it works," said Gordon Witteveen, director of golf maintenance for the board of Trade's five golf courses here.

Witteveen, who has two or three bales of barley straw in each of his half-dozen ponds, said, "We've implemented it and had pretty darn good success."

Two bales per acre of pond is sufficient, he said. He also suggested wrapping the bale with chicken wire or fishing net to prevent its falling apart when it decomposes. The bale floats, anchored by a string tied to a cement block.

"In Canada we can't use any dye or chemicals for aquatic weed control in non-self-contained ponds. If the pond is self-contained, you can use chemicals, but you must get a permit for every application," Witteveen said. "Mechanical harvesters, or long rakes can take algae out. Fountains work well too. This (barley straw) is another tool."

But why would barley straw rid a pond of algae? "This is my theory," said Dr. Eric Nelson of Cornell University, who has seen this method work. "It ties up nitrogen during decomposition of the barley straw. And since it's the nitrogen in the water that promotes algal blooms, they stop.

"I have not seen any research to prove this, but it makes sense. When you mulch plants with wood chips sometimes those chips pull nitrogen right out of the plant."

One difficulty could be in finding pure barley straw to begin with. But the farmers Witteveen works with have a large percentage of barley in their fields, he said.

Meanwhile, using the bales adds a novelty to the course, right? "Everybody is talking about it on the golf course," Witteveen said. "They're asking, "What are these bales of hay?"