C 192 J 



In sandy soils the earth is always sufficiently pen- 

 etrable by the atmosphere; but in clayey soils there 

 can scarcely be too great a mechanical division of 

 parts in the process of tillage. Any seed not fully 

 supplied with air, always produces a weak and diseas- 

 ed plant. 



The process of malting, which has been already 

 referred to, is merely a process in which germination 

 is artificially produced; and in which the starch of the 

 cotyledon is changed into sugar; which sugar is after- 

 wards, by fermination, converted into spirit. 



It is very evident from the chemical principles of 

 germination, that the process of malting should be 

 carried on no farther than to produce the sprouting of 

 the radicle, and should be checked as soon as this has 

 made its distinct appearance. If it is pushed to such 

 a degree as to occasion the perfect development of the 

 radicle and the plume, a considerable quantity of sac- 

 charine matter will have been consumed in producing 

 their expansion, and there will be less spirit formed in 

 fermentation, or produced in distillation. 



As this circumstance is of some importance, I 

 made in October 1 806, an experiment relating to it. 

 I ascertained by the action of alcohol, the relative pro- 

 portions of saccharine matter in two equal quantities 

 of the same barley; in one of which the germination 

 had proceeded so far as to occasion protrusion of the 

 radicle to nearly a quarter of an inch beyond the grain 

 in most of the specimens, and in the other of which it 

 had been checked before the radicle was a line in 

 length; the quantity of sugar afforded by the last was 

 to that in the first nearly as six to five. 



