Os Tor Bim on Orrin Wad Br Brewers

OS TOR BIM ON ORRIN. WAD BR BREWERS.

Every kind of grain, with perhaps hardly an excep tion, may be employed for the purposes of the brewer. la America, it is not uncommon to make beer with the seeds of Indian' corn or Zen maia. In order to convert it into malt, it is found necessary to bury it for some time under the ground, and when germina tion has made sufficient progress, it is dug up and kiln: dried. (See Philosophical Transaction', X11. 1065.) Mr Mungo Park informs us, that, in Africa, the Ne groes make beer from the seeds of the Holcua apica l.% and the process employed, as he describes it, seems to differ but little from the one followed in this country. (See Park's Travels, p. 63, We edi tion.) Dioscorides assures us, that, in Spain and Bri tain, wheat was employed for the manufacture of bee,. And the writer of this article has been in. formed by a gentleman in the service of the East India Company, that he has made beer from wheat • at Madras. We hare ourselves seen oats employed for the same purpose in Great Britain; and in Ger many and the North of Europe, we believe that it is not uncommon to apply rye to the same- purpose. But the which answers this purpose best, and which is almost solely used for this purpose in Great Britain, and we believe in every part of Eu rope where beer is manufactured, is.barley.

Barley is the seed of the

Norden.* vulgare, a plant which has been cultivated from time immemorial, chiefly for the manufacture of beer. There are two species of hordeuse under cultivation in Britain; I. The Hordernes velgere, or barley in which the seeds are disposed in two rows on the spike. This is the species usually cultivated in England and in the southern parts of Scotland. 2. The Hordeum hesastichon, called in the south of Scotland bear, and in Aberdeenshire big. In this species, the grains are disposed in two rows as in the other ; but three seeds spring from the same point, so that the head of big appears to have the seeds disposed in six rows. Big is a much more hardy plant than bar ley, and ripens more rapidly. Hence it thrives better than barley in cold and high situations. On this ao count, it is sown in preference in the Highlands and northern parts of Scotland, where the climate is colder than more to the south. We have been as sured, that there is a third. species of kordeeni culti

vated in Scotland, in which the seeds in the spike are arranged in four rows. To this- the term bear it exclusively confined by some. We have not our selves bad an opportunity of seeing this species, nor do we find it noticed by botanists. The trivial name tetrastic.lion might be applied' to it.

The grains of barley are much larger than those of big, and the cuticle which covers them is thin. ner. Indeed, the thickness of the skin of barley it self varies according to the heat of the climate in which it is cultivated, being always the thinner the warmer the climate. Thus it writ be found that the cuticle of Norfolk barley is thinner than that of Ber wickshire or East Lothian barley. And if Norfolk barley be sown in Scotland for several successive years, its cuticle is found to become thicker.

The specific gravity of barley is rather greater than that of big. The specific gravity of tried in mere than 100 different specimens, was found by us to vary from 1.833 to 1.250, and that of big from 1.265 to I.27. The average weight of a Win.

cheater bushel of barley, was found to be 50.7.113s. avoirdupois, and the average weight of a bushel of big 46.383 lbs. The heaviest barley tried, weighed 32.265 lbs. per bushel, and the heaviest big 48.586 lbs. This big grew in Perthshire, and the season was peculiarly favourable. It was not absolutely free from a mixture of barley, as was ascertained by sowing a quantity of it; but the proportion of bar ley was very small. The average weight of a grain of barley is 0.6688 grain, or very nearly two-thirds of a grain ; the average weight of a grain of big is 0.5613 grain. The average length of a rain of barley, from many thousand measurements, is 0.845 inch, while that of a grain of big is 0.3245 inch. - So that the average of both would give us very nearly the third of an inch, which it ought to do, according to the origin of our measures, as common ly stated. The average bieadth of a grain of barley is 0.145 inch, while the average breadth of a grain of big is 0.136 inch. The average thickness of a grain of barley is 0.1125 inch, while the average thickness of a grain of big is 0.1055 inch. Thus we perceive that the grain of big is smaller than the grain of barley in all its dimensions.