On Mah'mg, 101 



operation, bore the most unequivocal appearance of no water 

 having been employed in working them, and yet the vege- 

 tation was regularly and steadily kept up to the kiln. I ex- 

 amined specially all the old floors in the last stages of the 

 process, and even on the kiln, and found them fresli, sweet, 

 and in an evident state of healthy vegetation ,• and in some 

 instances where the grain had been some time on the kiln, 

 the quantity of moisture, which was flying ofl^ in a thick 

 dense vapour, aflx)rded satisfactory testimony, that barley, 

 when properly treated through the working process, can 

 carry along with it a sufficiency of the cistern water for all 

 the necessary purposes of malting. 



So very evident indeed was this, that it would only have 

 been requisite tn allow the oldest floors to have lain for a 

 proper time undisturbed, in order to their springing up into 

 a thick green bed of living plants. I was especially atten- 

 tive to this circumstance, and can now confidently declare, 

 that the statement of Mr. Reynoldson before the committee, 

 wherein he affirms, in such express terms, that the putre- 

 factive fermentation formed a part of the Ware process of 

 malting, has, in fact, no foundation whatsoever. 



I conversed with a gentleman who examined the same 

 three floors on the following day after Mr. Reynoldson's 

 ms'pection of them, and who declared, that though the corn 

 was not in good condition, owing to the warm s'tate of the ' 

 weather, and advanced season, (they were the last steepings,) 

 yet that the vegetation was completely alive on all oflhe 

 floors, and that there did not exist a single fact or circum- 

 stance in the case, which could authorise the stranire ac- 

 count given of them. All the maltsters also with whom I 

 conversed on thesubject, ridiculed the notion that putrescence 

 could have any share in their process, and expressed their 

 surprise, that so wild an opinion could have been advanced 

 or encouraged bv any one. 



Most of the malt-houses consist of a ran^e of building 

 tbrce stories in height, of which the two uppermost are 

 commonly boarded, and the lower oue plaster. Each steep- 

 ing is divided into three parts, and worked on a separate 

 :loor. The boards are warmer than the plaster, but beinc^ 



^ 3 highei-j, 



