THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



187 



HARVEST BEVERAGES 



Among tlie questions which the season of the year 

 naturally brings under discussioi>, that of harvest 

 beverages seems just now to occupy considerable 

 attention. The question, lilce that of boarding farm 

 labourers, brought not long since before the Farmers' 

 Club, of London, is discussed under the double aspect 

 of cheapness to the farmer, and advantage to the 

 labourer. It is only under the latter point of view that 

 we shall treat it. Various are the substitutes proposed 

 for honest John Barleycorn — tea, coffee, cocoa, water, 

 milk and water. Some have even advocated a return 

 to the old Roman posca, or vinegar and water, and 

 have assured us that it was much relished by the 

 harvest men — the descendants, it is to be presumed, of 

 some of Caesar's legionaries. 



That the practice, too prevalent in the cider counties, 

 of paying the labourers little money and much cider, 

 is a bad one, does not admit of a question; and that in 

 some districts evils have resulted from giving him 

 too much home-brewed beer, and too little money, 

 wherewith to buy food and raiment for the family, 

 is not to be denied. 



We knew a small farmer of the olden time, some 

 thirty years back, in the Weald, which is a cider 

 district, who made it a rule that all cider gTOwn upon 

 the farm should be consumed upon the farm. Acting 

 on this principle, he consumed a fair share him- 

 self, and dealt it out most liberally to his men. It 

 was a very rough cider certainly, very little of which 

 went a great way with those who were not to the 

 manner born; but it had its admirers, and it is 

 incredible what quantities of it a seasoned vessel would 

 hold. 



It is needless to add that among a certain class of 

 labourers our friend was very popular. Whether he 

 carried out this principle of home-consumption with 

 respect to the other produce of the farm we do not 

 recollect, neither do we know how — if he did — he 

 managed to pay his rent The secret, however, we be- 

 lieve to be, that he had no rent to pay, but was one of the 

 cultivating proprietors of those days. They might be 

 bad farmers, compared with those of the present day; 

 they were certainly not very scientitic; they knew 

 nothing of the short-horns and the Leicesters "of the 

 gentlemen," and selected their pigs, s^heep, and cattle 

 by the largeness of their bone, because large-boned ani- 

 mals "came," they said, "well to scale." With all 

 their faults, however, with all their short-comings, they 

 were a good honest race, and we wish we had some 

 cultivating proprietors as free from prejudice, and as 

 ready to adopt improvements, as the new school, 

 particularly improvements of a certain class. 



But our friend, the yeoman of the days that are 

 gone, and his cider orchard, have drawn us away from 

 the main subject before us — the question of harvest 

 drinks. The abuse of anything is no argument against 



the use of it. In this matter let there be one. rule for 

 all. If all liquors which contain alcohol are bad for 

 the labourer, they must be equally bad for the farmer 

 and the landowner. Let them at the same time be 

 banished the farm-house, and the mansion ! 



Professor Johnston, in his "Chemistry of Common 

 Life," has put the use of fermented liquors in their 

 proper light. He has treated of the liquors we ferment, 

 as well as the beverage we infuse. He contends against 

 their abuse, but advocates their legitimate use. He 

 points out the beneficial effects, under certain conditions, 

 attending the use even of ardent spirits; and shows 

 that beer is nourishing, as well as stimulating. He 

 gives a statement of the quantity of ardent spirits 

 consumed in the United Kingdom, in 1852, amounting 

 to 25,021,315 gallons, which are consumed in 

 England, Scotland, and Ireland; these quantities 

 being in the relative proportions of 10, U, and 8. Tiiis 

 is a large quantity of ardent spirits, he admits to be 

 consumed by a population of less than thirty millions; 

 but he contends that they do not justify the assumption 

 of Scotland and Ireland being more addicted to 

 drunkenness than England ; a charge which, ho observes, 

 strange as it may appear, originated in Scotland. 

 Calculating the quantity of alcohol yielded by the 

 malt consumed in England, he shows that it is much 

 greater in England than in Scotland and Ireland; but 

 then it is largely consumed in the form of beer. This 

 beer, he says, feeds and nourishes, as well as exhilarates 

 the English labourer. All which the distiller does not 

 convert into alcohol is lost in the waste as food for man. 

 All which the brewers' wort contains, with the exception 

 of that separated in the fining, remains in the beer. 

 Sugar and gluten, to the amount of from 4 to 5 per 

 cent, of its weight, exist in the malt liquor, and 

 travelling through the system modify the apparent 

 action of the alcohol with which they are associated. 

 They place malt liquor in the same relations to ardent 

 spirits that cocoa bears to tea and coffee. He shows, more- 

 over, that beer is drugged, so to speak, with hops, the 

 tonic, narcotic, and sedative influence of which modify 

 the intoxicating action of the alcohol. He observes, in 

 another place, that in the ardour of the teetotal 

 crusade against ardent spirits and fermented liquors, 

 statements have been made by over-zealous champions 

 of total abstinence, which are not quite borne out by 

 chemical and physical research. He shows that their 

 effects are to nourish the body, and by the changes 

 which they undergo in the blood to supply a portion of 

 the carbonic acid and watery vapour which are con- 

 stantly given off by the lungs. They so far supply the 

 place of food — of the fat and starch, for instance, which 

 we usually eat. Secondly, they diminish the absolute 

 amount of matter which we give off from the lungs 

 and the kidnies. They thus lessen, as tea and coffee 

 do, the natural waste of the fat and tissues, and they 



