\ 



230 



MANURES. 



Sect;X. 8. I 



o 



evaporation of half the water. From this curious circumftance there 

 fecms reafon to conclude, that in a degree of heat about that of boil- 

 ing water the faccharine procefs may fucceed ; and at the fame time 

 that the procefs of fermentation may be prevented from exiftii 

 which I hope may induce fome chemical philofopher to inveftigate 

 by experiments this curious and important fubje6l. 



Some circumftances, which feem to injure the life of feveral fruits. 



Thus if fome 



on the 



feem to forward the faccharine procefs of their j 



kinds of pears are gathered a week before they would ripen 



tree, and are 



laid on a heap and 



ed, their juice becomes fw 



many days fooner. The taking ofFa circular piece of the bark from 

 a branch of a pear-tree caufes the fruit of that branch to ripen fooner 

 by a fortnight, as I have more than once obferved. The wounds 

 made in apples by infedts occafion thofe apples to ripen fooner ; 

 prification, or the piercing of figs, in the ifland of Malta, is faid to 



ca- 



ripen them fooner ; and I am well informed, that when bunches of 

 grapes in this country have acquired their expected fize, that if the 

 ftalk of each bunch be cut 



half through, they will fooner ripen 



The germinating barley in the malt-houfe I bel 



acq 



not 



half its fweetnefs 



the life of the feed is deflroyed 



d the fac 



charine procefs then continued or advanced by the heat in dryii 

 though I have lately been informed that fome grains of malt w 



getate after having been dried in the ufual manner, 



which h 



may have been owing to their not having been previoufly fufFered 



Thus in animal digeflion the fugar prodi: 



;. as faft as it is mad 



perfectly to germinate. 



•ed in the ftomach is abforbed by the la6leal 



otherwife it ferments and produces flatulency ; fo in the germinat 



of barley in the malt-houfe fo long as the new plant lives, the fu 



I fuppofe is abforbed, as faft 



mad 



but that which w 



fe 



in making beer is 



the fugar produced by a ch 



procefs af! 



the death of the young plant, or which is made more expeditioufly 



than the plant can abforb it. 



It 



