MALTING.
Many opinions are entertained as to the best mode of making malt; some persons being great advocates for sprinkling the corn with water during certain stages of the process upon the floors, while others maintain that nothing of the kind is necessary, but rather injurious. As this is not intended for a treatise on malting, we shall not enter into any discussion upon that subject; but shall merely observe, that the practice may be either necessary or not, according to circumstances. In some malt-houses we have found it absolutely necessary to sprinkle for promoting vegetation, while in others, differently constructed, nothing of the kind was required.
The Excise allows sufficient latitude for wetting any kind of barley; it must not, however, be less than forty hours under water. The general mode of ascertaining when barley has been sufficiently steeped for malting, is first by its increase in bulk as shown by the dipping rod. A practical maltster generally judges from the compressibility of the pickle when squeezed endways between the thumb and finger. When sufficiently steeped, and after the water has been discharged, the barley is thrown (or in some instances drops through a valve or socket) from the cistern into the couch, where it must by law be let remain undisturbed not less than
