136 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



by spreading it out thinner, and frequently 

 turning it over with wooden shovels to cool it. 

 These operations require several days, and it is 

 then thrown into the malt-kiln and slightly 

 baked. The time it is kept there, and the heat 

 to which the kiln is raised, depend on the kind 

 of beer to be brewed, and the required colour 

 for the malt ; it is however enough for you to 

 know, that from eight to twelve hours is suf- 

 ficient; and that from ]30 to 160 of the ther- 

 mometer gives all the varieties of colour from 

 pale ale to the brownest porter. By this process 

 the grain undergoes a material change ; it ac- 

 quires a saccharine or sweet quality which it did 

 not possess before, and which is destroyed if 

 either the germination or the kiln-drying are 

 carried too far. It also loses a large proportion 

 of the mucilage that it contained ; which is the 

 reason why the flour of wheat that has been 

 sowed in wet weather is generally bad ; the grain 

 partially heats in the stacks, a tendency to ger- 

 minate takes place, and there is, therefore, a 

 deficiency of that nutritious part, the mucilage. 

 In this case the flour is said to be malty. 



" This accounts for the bad paste which your 

 aunt had some days ago ; it was made of malty 

 flour, and you know it had not the adhesive 

 quality of good paste." 



3rd, How pleasant it is to find some 



