48 On Matting. 



the water is at first the cause of the h^at, the heat again 

 renders more water indis-peusable. The floors in Hertford- 

 shire are never watered, simply because they are never heat- 

 er! ; and it is the cool state in which they are kept in the 

 early stage of malting chat preserves the original moisture, 

 ind induces that slow and natural vegetation so necessary 

 to prevent the substance of the grain from being run out. 



Mr. Reynoldson, in his evidence, states that the water 

 innbibed in the cistern is employed in forming the root, and 

 that the root afterwards is employed in supplying the grain, 

 and hence he infers that fresh water is necessary on the 

 floors. This description is tolerably just when applied to 

 the watering practice, but by no ineans sa in thai of the 

 Hertfordshire. In the former the cistern water, as I have 

 already stated, is nearly all expended in the first five or six 

 days by the employment of heat to drive out a rapid vegeta- 

 tion of the roof, but in the latter, seven or eight days are 

 employed to vegetate a less root. It is in this that the two 

 practices differ from each other. 



Mr. Reynoldson also states that the water received into 

 the grain becomes decomposed, and after such decompo- 

 sition exudes from the grain in a state unfit for vegeta- 

 tion, and hence he again infers the necessity of fresh water 

 bv sprinkling. This is another of that gentleman's unphilo- 

 Eopbicdl assertions which is without foundation : in the 

 chemical analvsis of water only two products are obtained, 

 viz. hydrogen and oxygen ; and these, when separated, have 

 never yet appeared in any other form than that of gases. 

 The decomposed water of Mr. Reynoldson is nothing more 

 than the pure water imbibed in the cistern, and injudiciously 

 sweated out on the surface of the grain. 



Flinty Malt. 

 Much is said in the evitlence about flinty n)a!t, and the 

 agents of the watering party insinuate that watering the corn 

 on the floors will best prevent it ; I have however much 

 reason for believing the contrary. Flint is allowed to differ 

 essentially from the original substance of the barley, and its 

 formation in the malt is therefore unquestionable. It ccn- 

 2 sists 



