PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 



It had unquestionably been fortunate for mankind if the use of 

 fermented Hquors had never been introduced amongst them, and 

 still more fortunate, if the means of concentrating, by distillation, 

 the noxious quahties of those liquors, had remained unknown. But 

 the luxuries and artificial wants of preceding generations, become 

 the necessaries of life amongst those which succeed ; the constitu- 

 tions of our children become adapted to the acquired habits of their 

 ancestry ; and it may be questioned whether our peasantry, in the 

 aggregate, could now toil through the heats of summer without 

 the aid of fermented liquors, though it must be admitted that these 

 do little more than enable them to borrow, from the future, the 

 stimulus to exertion in the present hour. That the labouring classes 

 will not consent to try the experiment is certain ; and whether fer- 

 mented liquors be necessary, or not, to the peasant, they certainly 

 are so to the farmer, who could not possibly get his corn collected 

 without their aid : and it therefore only remains to be enquired, 

 whether such liquors can be most advantageously obtained from 

 malt alone, or from that partly, and in conjunction with fruit 

 liquors. 



The soils, which are best calculated for the growth of barley, are 

 generally unfavourable to that of the apple and pear ; and the 

 strong argillaceous loams, in which the apple and pear succeed 

 best, are almost always very ill calculated for the culture of barley. 

 Upon such soils, therefore, fruit liquors can probably be obtained 



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