On Malting. 95 



the watering party have set up a very material distinction 

 between what they call heavy and light land barleys, and 

 they appear to have laid much stress on this distinction, and 

 to have considered it as one of the chief supports of their 

 case : to me, however, it seems no other than one of those 

 arthil subterfuges so commonly resorted to by artful and in- 

 terested traders in revenue questions, merely to obscure and 

 disguise the true state of the matter at issue. 



On all the numerous gradations of soil, from the lightest 

 down to clay itself, barleys are produced, varying in every 

 degree, chiefly as to colour and thickness of skin; but 

 this variety is not, as is attempted to be set up, a local cir- 

 cumstance. U abounds every where, because light and 

 heavy soils do every where abound ; and it is only to the ex • 

 tremes, and not to the multitude of intermediate gradations, 

 that any thing advanced before the committee can fairly be 

 referred. Certainly to mix the very coarsest with the very 

 finest barleys in the same cistern would be improper; but 

 each sort can be well malted separately without any aid from 

 watering on the floors, which is in no respect more necessary 

 fur what is called the heavy than it is for the light land corn. 



The several witnesses who have spoken to the case have 

 advanced that niore water is required for the coarse than the 

 fine skinned grain, but the fact is probably the contrary. 

 The thin skinned barley, being the largest and plumpest 

 corn, will certainlv require the most water for its vegeta- 

 tion, but on account of its more pervious husk, it will sooner 

 imbibe its proportion of tlie fluid. Hence it is that thick 

 skmned grain does not actually require a larger proportion 

 of water but only of time in the cistern to absorb its propor- 

 tion; and having accomplished that, it is equally, and perhaps 

 better, fitted for going through the subsequetit process of 

 malting without a further suj)ply, as its thick husk is more 

 hkely lo retain the moisture which it has got. 



If, however, the reason of the thing did not sufficiently 

 prove it, the testimony of Messrs. Clough and King fully 

 establishes thut better malt can be made Irom coarse barleys 

 without jhan with watering upon the fioors ; atld in every 



place 



