On Malting. 4? 



healthy germination of the barley up to that period whea 

 the largest proportion of saccharine has been fvjrmecl ; nor 

 can any thing be more obvious th.m that in a variety of 

 modes to accompHsh this, one musi be superior to all the rest, 

 and that not locally, but every where, because nature is 

 every where the same. In every natural process, a varying 

 of the means will necessarily produce adiflerencein theend; 

 and in the two modes of malting, bv watering on the floors, 

 or omitting to do so, there is so material a difference, not 

 merely in the use or disuse of the water, but in the time, 

 management, and other circumstances, that the one cannot 

 but be superior to the other in the quality of its respective 

 commodity. 



. A single instance, I believe, cannot be produced of any 

 natural process whatsoever, wherein Nature permits the em- 

 ployment of two diflerent means to produce precisely the 

 same end. The application of this to the question oi malt- 

 ing will, I humbly presume, be sufficiently obvious, by se- 

 parately considering the different branches of the case. 



The Radicle. 



This is by much the most important organ in malting: 

 without a root the grain will never germinate, and with too 

 much, the substance of the corn will be exhausted, and the 

 malt on that account will be light and unproductive. This 

 has hitherto, I believe, either not been sufficiently knowa 

 or attended to ; — in this, as in evtry other natural process. 

 Nature lierself afford^* the best explanation. 



On the richest and best lands the roots of barley are short, 

 and the plant large antl strong; but on loose and poor soils 

 the roots are lopg, and the stem small and weak. In the 

 one case the root, having read.ly found what it was in search 

 of, stops ; but in the other. Nature is compelled to expend 

 much of the pabulum on the more igiwble part of her pro- 

 duction. On the floor of a malt-house the grnin is worse 

 situated than on the loosest and poorest land ; for it con- 

 tains no soil at all, and if permitted, the root there would 

 run out to some inches in length, and almost wholly ex- 



hatist 



