492 
Barley from a Maltsters Point of View. 
Whether fruit-growing and fruit-drying are likely to assist 
the British farmer as they have assisted the farmers of New York 
State in a predicament of exactly similar character, is a question 
yet to be solved. One thing, however, is certain, that a little of 
the alertness which, within fifteen years, has changed the old 
granary of America into an orchard, and the "Flour City" of 
Western New York into a fruit-drying centre, might be imported 
with advantage, even if the methods resulting from such importa- 
tion took other forms than that which this paper attempts to out- 
line. A second thing is, in the writer's view, equally certain — 
that the conditions under which the British farmer works must 
at least approximate to those which surround his freeholding com- 
petitor in the States before he can, prudently, plant fruit trees. 
XXVI. — Barley from a Maltsters Point of Vieiv. By ROBERT 
Free, Mistley, Essex. 
The art of making good malt out of bad barley has not yet been 
discovered, and hence there is usually a range of 20s. per quarter 
in the prices which maltsters are prepared to pay for the various 
samples of English barley offering on the markets during the 
season. Nevertheless, the cost of producing barley worth 45s. 
per quarter is practically the same as that of producing barley 
worth only 25s., and, leaving out of account the influence of un- 
favourable weather, such as we have had this season, there is no 
valid reason why so large a proportion of the barley grown in 
this country should be of inferior quality. The British farmer 
has, unfortunately, many adverse circumstances to contend with 
which are wholly beyond his control, but that is surely the best 
reason for seizing every available opportunity of turning the 
land to profitable account, and for making the most of produce 
in which there yet remains a chance of competing successfully 
with the foreigner. If I remember rightly, J\Ir. C. S. Read and 
Mr. Albert Pell, in their joint report to the Royal Commission 
on Agriculture, gave it as their opinion that our farmers could 
in future only hope to hold their own against more favourably 
situated foreign and colonial rivals, in grazing and the growth 
of barley. As regards the gi'ain with which mj'- thirty years' 
experience as a maltster has made me familiar, I do not hesitate 
to endorse their views, but with the condition, which must of 
course have been expressed or taken for granted by them, that 
in the struggle which has practically become one for very exist- 
ence, British growers should not neglect any one of the essential 
elements of success. 
