98 On Malting. 



extend to a period sufficiently late to exclude its practica- 

 bility, and which indeed may be equally said of the pre- 

 ceding fraud. The one, however, of which T am now 

 speaking is too well known at the board, from the numerous 

 detections which have been made of it, to require any par- 

 ticular description or comment from me. 



Present Restriction against Sprinkling. 



When the present restriction against watering on the 

 floors was established, a very material circumstance, inti- 

 mately connected with it, was probably in some degree over- 

 looked, or at least not sufficiently adverted to. This cir- 

 cumstance is, that in every instance where short wet corn 

 is fraudulently laid upon the floors, it does not take the true 

 ago when it was actually removed out of the cistern, but a 

 false age of the same date of the preceding steeping. This 

 arises from its being either mixed with and of course be- 

 coming part of the youngest floor, or taking its place in the 

 officer's account, and passing for it through all the subse- 

 quent stages of malting. The regulation of this false age is 

 very much within the power of the fraudulent maltster; for, 

 as he steeps when he pleases, he can determine the day 

 and hour when he will empty privately the cistern, and he 

 can keep back the youngest floor from growing by spreading 

 it very thin. In this way three days of false age can be 

 readily gained, and such corn will come in course to be 

 watered on the seventh, instead of the tenth day, as in- 

 tended by the restriction : but had the maltster a discretional 

 power of watering, he would not do it sooner than about the 

 sixth day: hence the present restriction against watering, as 

 far as regards fraud, cannot be considered as operating to 

 any very useful purpose ; and even in cases where no fraud 

 is practised its operation is very feeble indeed, and the great 

 extent to which watering upon the floors is still followed, 

 sufficiently proves the inutility of the present restricted period. 



The former restriction of twelve days was much morceff"ec- 

 tual, as short wet corn could not be worked up to that period, 

 even with the false age already spoken of, without watering 

 it; and by watering it illegally, the penalty for doing so was 



not 



