n Lxi 9" 
s 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
It had unquestionably been fortunate for mankind if the use of 
fermented liquors had never been introduced amongst them, and 
still more fortunate, if the means of concentrating, by distillation, 
the noxious qualities 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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