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1864. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEE. 



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From the Boston Cultivator. 



- Malt and Malting, 



Barley is chiefly used in America for making 

 malt for brewers. Malt is an article of quite ex- 

 tensive commerce. No other cereal will supply its 

 place for brewing purposes. Therefore, in order 

 to have good malt, a good article of barley is very 

 indispensable. Malt looks like barley that has been 

 sprouted, and the grain tastes quite sweet. 



Makino Malt. — When barley is malted it passes 

 through the same process that it does when it ger- 

 minates, after being sowed in the soil. The pro- 

 cess of malting consists in evolving the saccharine 

 principle. And chemists tell us that the starch is 

 converted into sugar during the process of malting. 

 For this reason malt is sweet to the taste- It is 

 important to keep the different kinds of barley 

 separate, in order to obtain the highest price for it 

 per bushel. We collected the details of malt mak- 

 ing at a malt establishment in Phelps, Oneida Co., 

 N. Y., where vast quantities of good malt are 

 raised. 



Malting consists of three operations. The first 

 is steeping the barley. This is done by putting the 

 grain into spacious tubs, that will contain 100 

 bushels, or more. Water is then turned upon it 

 and it is allowed to steep from 40 to 50 hours It 

 requires not a little experience in malting to know 

 when the grain has steeped just enough, and not 

 too much. It needs to be soft enough to yield to 

 the pressure of the thumb and finger, and not pro- 

 duce a milky fluid. The second process consists 

 in spreading it out on a floor, after taking it from 

 the steeping tubs. The floors are made of stone or 

 of sheet iron. Here the grain germinates. Heat 

 is communicated from furnaces beneath the floor, 

 to promote germination. As the warmth increas- 

 es, roots appear from the grain, and in the course 

 of ten or twelve days the entire grain will have 

 germinated. The third operation is kUndrying the 

 grain. This is done by increasing the heat suffi- 

 ciently to destroy the vegetative power of the 

 sprouted grain. AH the moisture must be driven 

 out of it, and the roots must be made quite dry. 

 OtherwisjC the malt could not be kept in large bins, 

 as it would heat and spoil. 



Loss OF Grain in Malting. — It is said that 100 

 lbs. of good barley will yield about 80 lbs. of malt. 

 Consequently, a loss of about one-fifth of the grain 

 in malting. And if it be not clean and plump, — if 

 oats, buckwheat, or any other grain be mingled 

 with the barley, or if different kinds of barley be 

 mingled, there will be a loss in proportion to the 

 amount of these impurities. Malt cannot be made 

 of any other grain, nor of the seeds of noxious 

 weeds. Therefore, all such impurities lessen the 

 value of barley for malting. Different kinds of 

 barley will not malt in the same period of time. 

 Therefore, if winter and spring barley be mingled, 

 as the two kinds will not malt alike, there must 

 necessarily be more or less loss in malting. The 

 two-rowed and the six-rowed barley will not malt 

 in the same time. If these things are true — and 

 those who profess to know affirm that this is the 

 fact — farmers will perceive the importance of 

 keeping their barley as pure as practicable. It is 

 also affirmed that barley which is more than a year 

 old will not malt well. This will be found correct, 

 so far as the grain has lost its vegetative power. 

 But if the grain will germinate well, it will make 



Just as good malt, if it be ten years old, as it would 

 one year after harvest. The young farmer should 

 guard against all these sources of loss in the bar- 

 ley crop, and aim always to grow nothing but the 

 pure grain, and to have that of the very best vari- 

 ety and quality, and in the best condition as to 

 ripeness, purity of grain and age ; and to be sure 

 and raise only which kind that is considered the 

 best for malting. . V ., ; S. E. S. 



Screens for Shelter. 



Every year adds to the proofs of the value and 

 importance of belts or screens of trees as shelter 

 from severe winds to growing plants. An acquain- 

 tance in New Jersey recently showed us several ac- 

 cidental belts which had grown up from nursery 

 plantations. They were placed in different parts 

 of Jiis farm, and in every instance the shelter they 

 had afforded to adjoining crops, whether of grain 

 or hay, averaged about 50 per cent, additional to 

 the same crops when exposed to the sweep of 

 winds. This advantageous result extended to ma- 

 ny rods from the screens, and then gradually les- 

 sened as the distance increased. These screens 

 were mostly some eight or nine years old, and ave- 

 raged aboat 20 feet high. By selecting valuable 

 timber trees these belts may be made a source of 

 double profit, as they may be thinned out and the 

 timber used, as the trees extend in breadth and 

 hight. Evergreens have a great advantage over 

 deciduous trees by the complete barrier which 

 they afford against the winds of winter when most 

 needed. The white willow at the West has been 

 made to form high screens by quick growth, and if 

 the belts are several trees in breadth, they will 

 make a good shelter. Evergreens, however, have 

 the advantage of not sprouting up or suckering, 

 and they do not commonly injure or exhaust the 

 adjacent strip of land so much as deciduous trees. 



In riding through the different parts of the coun- 

 try the fields of winter grain afford to the observ- 

 ing eye many examples of the value of shelter. On 

 the lee side of woods or trees, or of hills or ridges 

 of land, the crops have, in most instances, been 

 slightly injured ; while fields exposed to the full 

 sweep of wintry winds have suffered severely. It 

 is true that a thin top dressing of straw or coarse 

 manure in the few cases where applied, have prov- 

 ed a valuable protectien. But a more general and 

 continued shelter would be afforded by belts of 

 trees, and we invite the continued attention of 

 land owners to the subject. 



We may add that the Norway Spruce usually 

 grows at least three feet annually when cultivated, 

 and two feet on good land when not. Consequently 

 allowing two years for young two feet trees to get 

 well under way, eight years will give a good twen- 

 ty feet screen when cultivated, and twelve years 

 without such treatment — the distance assunder be- 

 ing some six or eight feet. — Country Gent. 



In these times of high prices, it is well to 

 remember that children can be supplied with, 

 shoes for less than half the usual annual cost by 

 wearing Metal-Tipped Shoes, to say nothing of 

 stockings destroyed and health endangered by wet 

 feet arising from the childlike habit of wearing out 

 their shoes at the toe first. — Boston Journal. 



