e barley the
less it loses in malting; a barrel of 224 lbs., and value from 15s. to
16s., ought to produce a barrel of malt of 196 lbs., value 29s. to 30s.

If we deduct from the cost of a barrel of malt the amount of duty at
present levyable upon it, the price of the article will be still nearly
50 per cent. greater than that of an equal weight of barley. The cheaper
barley is the greater will be the relative cost of malt. The maltster's
charge for converting a barrel of barley into malt is about 4s.; so
that if the price of the grain be so low as 12s. per barrel, which it
sometimes is, the cost of malting it would amount to 33 per cent. of its
price. Then, the diminution in the weight of, and the cost of carting
the grain, must be taken into account; and when the whole expense
attendant upon the process of malting is ascertained, it will be found
that I have not exaggerated in stating that a ton of malt costs as much
as a ton and a half of barley.

If the consumer of malt germinate the seeds himself, he may probably,
if he require large quantities of the article, produce it at a somewhat
cheaper rate than if he bought it from the maltster; but few persons who
have the slightest knowledge of the vexatious restrictions of the Inland
Revenue authorities would be likely to place his premises under the
_espionage_ of an excise officer.

As the superiority of malt over barley (if such be really the case) must
be chiefly due to the looseness of its texture, which allows the juices
of the stomach to act readily upon it, barley in a cooked state might be
found quite as nutritious: It would not be fair to institute comparisons
between dense hard barley-seeds and the easily soluble malted grains.
During the cooking of barley a portion of the starch is changed into
sugar, but in this case with only an inappreciable waste of nutriment.
When the cooking process is continued for a few hours, a considerable
amount of sugar is formed, and the barley acquires a very sweet flavor.

When the malt for cattle question was under discussion, I made a little
experiment in relation to it, the results of which are perhaps of
sufficient interest to mention:--Two pounds weight of barley-meal were
moistened with warm water; after standing for three hours more water was
added, and sufficient heat applied to cause the fluid to boil. After
fifteen minutes' ebullition, a few ounces of the pasty-like mass which
was produced were removed, thoroughly