Cn Mdliing, 43 



■forcing system of watering the floors is lighter and less pro- 

 ductive than the malt made by the Hertfordshire mode, 

 without watering. 



T/ie Acrospire. 



In the making; trade a great diversity of opinion prevails 

 as to how far the vegetation of the acrospire should be car- 

 ried. This arises from a notion, very general among malt- 

 sters, that just so far a? the acrospire penetrates the grain, 

 it becomes malted, and that the impenetrated part remains 

 unchanged barley. I trust, however, that I shall soon show 

 there is nothing either of truth or nature in this notion. 

 The evidence of Messrs. King and Clough sufficiently esta- 

 blishes that the best malt is made when the acrospire pro- 

 ceeds only two thirds through the grain, and it is my present 

 purpose to prove that their opinion and practice are sup- 

 ported by the natural reason of the case. 



I have already staled that it is the radicle which first ac- 

 quires an attraction for the oxygen of the atmosphere, com- 

 municating it progressively to the interior substance of the 

 barley, and forming by its fixation and union with the fa- 

 rina the first saccharine ; and that afterwards the plumula, 

 or infant stem, requires an attraction for the newly formed 

 saccharine, and by its chemical action is pushed into vege- 

 table life. 



In this statement a solution i«. given of the question of 

 the acrospire, and the truth really is, that the radicle is the 

 oidy natural organ wh.ch malts the barley, or, in other 

 words, oxidites the interior substance, and forms the whole 

 of tile saccharine, while the acrospire is simply employed in 

 feedmg upon it, and from thence acquiring its growth and 

 bulk. 



/riiis obvious, and I trust just and natural distinction in 

 the offices which Nature assigns to each of those different 

 members of the plant, sulliciently explains why the barley 

 may be, and actually is perfectly malted by the Hertford- 

 shue method, though the acrospire has proceeded only two 

 thirds through the grain, because in the more slow and na- 

 tural growtlj of the acrospire, the root has had time to malt 

 the interior substance beyond it, and even to the extreme 



end 



