upwards (Dr. Darwin supposes with the root end); and such as are properly malted, float on their side; whereas sound, ungerminated barley, uniformly sinks in water. Another criterion of good malt is, its agreeable saccharine taste; and, likewise, if the whole contents of the grain easily crumble into powder, and dissolve in the mouth. In short, it ought to be pure, dry, and to emit a strong, though agreeable, odour.
Mr. Bordley, an intelligent American farmer, advises his countrymen to buy malt, or exchange barley for malt, rather than to attempt the making of it; as the principal difficulty he found was in ascertaining the heats of the grain, while germinating. At length he succeeded, on attending to the directions given in the 5th vol. of Mills's Husbandry. This practical writer observes, that during the first ten days the heat of the malt on the floor should be between 50 and 60 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer; in the next three or four days, it is to be increased from 60 to 65 and 67°; and during the last ten days of its lying there, to 80, 84, and 87°; which last will be the proper degree of heat, when the malt must be laid on the kiln.
After the malt is properly ground in a mill, it is fit for Brewing; of which process we have already given an account under that article.
Malt-dust, or the refuse that falls from malt in drying, affords an advantageous manure for wheat-land, especially if it be scattered as a top-dressing: The proper quantity of this dust is 80 bushels per acre for wheat, and about 60 bushels for barley: it is also eminently calLulated for grass-lands; and, if applied in the latter proportion, it will produce a very considerable increase of the best seed. Such manure, however, is most beneficial to clay-soils, or stiffs loams; as, on gravelly land, and in dry seasons, it will be apt to burn the soil. But, if the succeeding weather be moist, it will be productive of great benefit; for the first shower washes it into the earth, and thus secures the crop, which not only becomes finer and more abundant, but the soil is at the same time effectually cleared from the noxious weeds, that frequently vegetate, when common dung is employed.
As malt forms so essential an article of domestic consumption, and is not at all times within the reach of the poor, various recipes have been given for making beer with a small portion of, or wholly without, malt: some of these having already appeared in pp. 237-8, of our first volume, we now add the following method of brewing beer, as tending lo diminish the consumption of, and thus in some measure to serve as a substitute for, that valuable grain. It consists simply in adding 28lbs. of dry, well-tasted brown sugar, to half a load, or three Winchester bushels, of malt. The latter is to be brewed in the usual manner with hops, after which the sugar is to be introduced, and the liquor stirred till the whole is dissolved. Thus, a wholesome beverage may be procured at about three-fourths of the expence usually incurred by using malt and hops only; because a smaller proportion of the latter plant now answers the purpose.
Among the difterent patents that have been granted for inventions,
