280 CHYMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 



small a scale as to supply the wants of a single family, I shall 

 enter into no explanation of the process, as it requires a de- 

 gree of care not usually to be found amongst the peasantry^ 

 and utensils which they do not possess : I shall confine my- 

 self to pointing out some processes by means of which, 

 though they are simple and imperfect, some very wholesome 

 drinks may be obtained from grains. 



The sole drink of the common people, and one which is 

 not disdained even by the richest proprietors throughout 

 the vast extent of the Russian territory, is quass, and it 

 is there regarded as being nourishing and healthy. We 

 are informed by M. Percy, Surgeon-General of our armies, 

 that the French soldiers who had been accustomed to 

 drinking wine and beer, felt at first some repugnance 

 towards the use of quass, but they very soon became ac- 

 customed to it, and in the end loved it so much as to man- 

 ufacture it themselves ; they found that it gave them 

 strength and flesh, and preserved them from the attacks of 

 epidemics. 



In manufacturing quass, one tenth part of the rye to be 

 employed is steeped in water till it becomes sofl, it is then 

 spread thinly upon planks in a place warm enough to pro- 

 duce germination, and it is there sprinkled occasionally with 

 warm water. The remainder of the rye, after having been 

 ground, is mixed with the germinated grain, and the whole 

 is diluted with two gallons and a half of boiling water ; the 

 vessel is then set into an oven, from which bread has just 

 been drawn, or exposed to an equivalent degree of heat, 

 during twenty-four or thirty hours : if the vessel be put into 

 an oven which it is necessary to heat every day, it may be 

 removed during baking, and returned again after the bread 

 is taken out. After this first operation the fermented sub- 

 stance is diluted by mixing with it 2^ gallons of water at the 

 temperature of 12° or 15° ; * this mixture is stirred for half 

 an hour and then allowed to settle. 



As soon as a deposit is formed and the liquor becomes 

 clear, it is thrown into a cask where fermentation takes 

 place ; this is completed in a few days, when the cask is 

 removed into a cellar, and the quass soon becomes clear. 

 It is in this state that quass is drunk by the Russian peas- 

 ant ; but it is much improved by being drawn off into jugs 



[* No scale is given ; if of the centigrade, equal to from 5S° to 59° ^ 

 if of Reaumur, to from 59° to 65°. — Tr.] 



