ering, well applied, will, in most
cases, answer the purpose. Two thirds of the whole quantity of water
should be given to the upper surface of the couch, then turn it, and
give the remaining third of the water to the couch when turned. The
whole quantity of water to be used for sixty bushels of American spring
barley, may be averaged at fifty-four gallons; this quantity will,
consequently, allow thirty-six gallons to be as evenly distributed over
the surface of the couch for the first water, as possible; the
remaining eighteen gallons to be put on in the same way: when the couch
is turned after this last watering, the whole couch should be turned
back again; thus, in every turning, the bottom and top should always
exchange places. In this stage of the process, care should be taken to
turn the couch frequently, to prevent the growth of the root, in order
to give the greater facility to the growth of the blade, it being
essentially requisite to keep that of the root stationary, to prevent a
waste of strength in the grain. Three or four days after watering, is
generally found a sufficient time for the blade to grow fully up to the
end of the grain; farther than which it should not be suffered to
proceed. The couch should be now checked in its growth, and thrown on
the second or withering floor, where it should be laid thin, and
frequently turned; this continued operation will bring it dry and sweet
to the kiln, to which it may be committed without further delay.
Although the common practice is to throw it up into what is commonly
termed a sweet-heap, and so remain from twelve to twenty-four hours, or
until you can hardly bear your hand in it; then, and not before, is it
considered fit to go on the kiln. This is a practice that cannot be too
much condemned, or too generally exploded, as producing the very worst
consequences; a few of which I will mention. Green malt, thus treated,
becomes in a manner decomposed; and beer brewed from such malt will
never keep long, acquiring a disagreeable, nauseous flavour, rapidly
tending to acidity, beside becoming unusually high coloured. Although
the malt, before grinding, will have all the appearance of pale malt,
this quality can be easily accounted for by the high heat the malt is
suffered to acquire in the heap before putting it on the kiln. What I
have here mentioned will, I trust, suffice to recommend a more
judicious mode of practice. Forty-eight hours for malt to remain on the
k