86 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



and not place him in scenes where he knows 

 " sins a.bound." 



I am sure, as I said before, when this is taken 

 into consideration, trouble will not be withheld, 

 but many will willingly try a plan which is likely 

 lo place temptation a little farther from their 

 threshhold. 



I will now tell you the articles necessary for 

 brewing at home. Every cottage owns a large 

 saucepan — one that holds about three gallons is a 

 good size J this will answer the purpose of a cop- 

 per. A tub will be the utensil for working the 

 beer in; and if you cannot conveniently buy a 

 small mash-tub, bore a hole in the bottom of a 

 pail to allow the liquor to run slowly through. 

 These three things are all that are really neces- 

 sary; and now, as to the materials of the beer. 

 Those who have been accustomed to drink brew- 

 er's beer will not, perhaps, at first like the pure 

 malt and hops; their taste, however, will soon 

 improve; or if not, the}- will find by adding to 

 every two bushels of malt the following ingredi- 

 ents, they will obtain beer very similar to what 

 they have always drunk: — " 31bs. su^ar, boiled up 

 once in a very little water, with one pennyworth 

 of coriander seed, and one pennyworth of capsi- 

 cum.'" Malt must be carefully chosen, the amber 

 coloured is the best. It should not be ground, 

 but merel)' crushed. Hops should be new; when 

 good, they have a yellowish green colour. Soft 

 water should be used,,. if possible, for brewing; 

 and every article must be most scrupulously clean. 



I will suppose you wish to brew six gallons of 

 beer, and for that quantity you must have a pot 

 which will contain four gallons of water. Have 

 read}- in your mash-tub one peck of crushed malt 

 (be careful to have the hole in the tub stopped.) 

 When the water nearly bolls, pour it on to the 

 malt, stir it well for ten minutes, cover the pail 

 over with a thick sack or piece of wood, and 

 place it by the fire for two hours. Hold the pail 

 over the tub, draw out the peg, and let the liquor 

 run. Stop the hole again, and add to the malt 

 two gallons more of nearly boiling water, cover 

 as before, and set by the fire for an hour. Put 

 the first strained liquor into the copper or pot, 

 and add four ounces of good hops ; boil for twenty 

 minutes; strain it into a tub; return the hops to 

 the pot, and add the second addition of wort, 

 which has been standing by the fire; boil this 

 half an hour; strain and cool this as you did the 

 first; when lukewarm mix them together, and 

 stir in | of a pint of yeast. Skim it frequently 

 during the day, and when it has stood twenty-four 

 hours in the tub, put it into a cask; leave the 

 bung-hole open as long as any yeast rises, but 

 when the fermentation is over, hammer the bung 

 tightly in, and leave it for a week, by the end of 

 which it will be fit for use. 



One of the chief points in brewing is to attend 

 to the proper heat the water has before it is pour- 

 ed on the malt. If it is too hot, it contracts the 



maltr and prevents the full flavor from appearing; 

 the proper temperature is 180°, but as a thermo- 

 meter is not a likely appendage to a cottage wall, 

 the hand must be depended upon. You should 

 just be able to draw your hand quickly through 

 the water without experiencing pain. 



There are several other methods of making 

 beer, such as with potatoes, mangold wurtzel, 

 and sugar, but I will reserve these for some fu- 

 ture occasion, mj' present object being to tempt 

 the cottager's wife to brew her husband's glass 

 of beer. At the present time it will prove most 

 economical, malt being cheap, and brewer's beer 

 remaining at the same price. London Cottage 

 Gard. 



Working Gardens. — Resuming our observa- 

 tions upon the light afforded to gardening by oth- 

 er sciences, we will commence by observing that 

 the benefits derived from keeping the roots of plants 

 near the surface of the soil are more apparent in 

 fruit trees and other perennials ihan in our annual 

 crops, inasmuch as that the roots of trees being 

 thus kept within the influence of the solar rays, 

 always vegetate earU', and ripen well their young 

 wood. The quantity of oxygen absorbed by the 

 roots of growing plants, is very large; being, in 

 the instances of the radish, carrot, and others, 

 not less than their own bulk in the course of twen- 

 ty-four hours. 



Digging, hoeing, and trenching, are the practi- 

 ces emploA'cd for facilitating the access of the air 

 to the roots of plants, by rendering the texture of 

 the soil loose and easily permeable. 



Very few people ever consider in detail the ex- 

 penditure of labor required from the garden labo- 

 rer when digging. It is a labor above all others 

 calling into exercise the muscles of the human 

 frame; and how great is the amount of this exer- 

 cise, may be estimated from the followin<r facts: 



In digging a square perch of ground in spits of 

 the usual dimensions, (seven inches by eight inch- 

 es,) the spade has to be thrust in 700 times, and 

 as a spadeful of earth, if the spade penetrates nine 

 inches, as it ought to do, will weigh on the ave- 

 raire full seventeen pounds, eleven thousand nine 

 hundred pounds of earth have to be lifted; and 

 the customary pay for doing this is 2|d.! 



As there are 160 perches or rods in an acre, in 

 dinfging the latter measure of ground, the garden 

 laiaorer has to cut out 112,000 spadefuls of earth, 

 weighing in the aggregate 17,000 cwt., or 850 

 tons; and during the work he moves over a dis- 

 tance of fourteen miles. As the spade weighs be- 

 tween eight and nine pounds, he has to lift, in 

 fact, during the work, half as much more weight 

 than that above specified, or 1,278 tons. 



A four-pronged fork, with the prongs twelve 

 inches long, and the whole together forming a 

 head eisht inches wide, is a more elTicient tool for 

 dicsing than the common spade. It requires the 

 exertion of less power ; breaks up the soil more 

 effectually; and does not clog even when the soil 



