148 Cottage Husbandry and Architecture. 



Pot-barley. — The husking can only be well done at a barley-mill ; but, by 

 steeping the barley for six hours, and then kiln-drying it, or drying it on the 

 flued floor, or on the stove, or in the oven, the husks will come off in a 

 common corn-mill, or by rubbing in a mortar with a pestle. The garden and 

 also the field pea are steeped and husked in this manner for split peas and 

 pea-meal ; but the pea is not, in general, a profitable crop for the cottager. 



Malting is nothing more than an artificial mode of making the barley 

 vegetate, by steeping it in water, and fermenting it afterwards in a heap, to 

 produce heat enough for germination ; and then arresting its progress towards 

 forming a plant, by kiln-drying. The cottager may put the quantity of barley 

 which he intends to brew in a bag, and immerse it in a tub of water for an 

 hour ; then take it out, lay it in a heap on the floor of a warm place, and 

 cover it over with straw, or with two or three bags, to produce a moist heat, 

 and bring on vegetation : when the radicle is three fourths of an inch long, 

 he may spread it out and dry it, either on the hottest part of his flued floor, 

 or on his heating flue, or in his oven. But, according to some, very good 

 ale may be produced by grinding or bruising unmalted barley, and mixing it 

 with a small quantity of ground malt, leaving it in mash at a heat of about 

 150° for two or three hours. The malt is introduced to hasten the ferment- 

 ation of the bruised grain, which is said to be as complete as if it had lain a 

 fortnight on the malting-floor. Cobbett disapproves of this mode of making- 

 beer which, he says, produces strength ; but a flat heavy beer, that lies heavy 

 on the stomach, has a bad taste, and is unwholesome, and therefore we do 

 not recommend it, unless in cases of necessity. Perhaps sweet beer, such as 

 is easily made from honey, treacle, or beet-root molasses, might be preferable. 

 As unripe potatoes, and the point or least matured end of ripe potatoes, are 

 found to vegetate soonest, so unripe seeds of every sort are also found to 

 vegetate soonest ; therefore, that part of a cottager's plot of barley which he 

 intends for malt, should be cut a few days sooner than the remaining part 

 which he intends for pot-barley, meal, or feeding his pig. 



It is a very common practice in several parts of England, when wheat, 

 barley, or other grain is sprouted in the ear in consequence of a wet harvest, 

 to carry home these ears, dry them, and use them as malt. The seeds of 

 ryegrass, if sprouted, we have no doubt, would make very good malt. 



There is a mode of making beer from sugar described in the Cabinet 

 Cyclopcedia, vol. iii. Domestic Economy, p. 207., which is almost as easy 

 as making tea. The flavour, the writer says, is superior to that from malt ; 

 and its lightness on the stomach places it above all competition. 



Hops. — Nothing can be easier than for every cottager to grow his own hops. 

 He may either plant a single hill, as the term is, of four plants on a surface of 

 a square yard, to run up four poles 1.2 or 15 ft. high ; or he may plant five or 

 six roots round an arbour ; or, if his cottage has a rustic veranda, a plant 

 may run up each column. As a substitute for hops, the marsh trefoil (.Me- 

 hyanthes trifoliata) is employed on the Continent ; and, it is said, was foi'- 

 merly used in this country. One ounce of the dried leaves is said to be 

 equivalent to half a pound of hops. The plant is of easy culture in moist 

 soil. All the plants of the same natural order, Gexitianece, and especially 

 the different species of Gentidna, might be used in the same manner, more 

 particularly G. lutea, rubra, and purpurea. In Switzerland, a spirit is dis- 

 tilled from the roots of G. lutea. The dried roots of Ghxxm urbanum, 

 common in hedges, are sliced, enclosed in a thin linen bag, and suspended 

 in the beer cask, by the brewers of Germany, to prevent, it is said, the beer 

 from turning sour, and to give it the odour of cloves. There can be little 

 doubt that several other plants belonging to the Rosaceous tribe Dryadeae 

 would have a similar effect : such, for example, as Agrimonia, a most fra- 

 grant bitter, and Dryas, Comarum, Potentilla, and Tormentilla, powerful 

 astringents. A similar use is made of the roots of J'corus Calamus and 



