ot that
would come out of the ground, pushing on towards the _point_ of the
barley-corn. It starts from the bottom, where the root comes out; and it
goes on towards the other end; and would, if _kept moist_, come out at
that other end when the root was about an inch long. So that, when you
have got the _root to start_, by soaking and turning in heap, the spear is
_on its way_. If you look in through the skin, you will see it; and now
observe; when the _point of the spear_ has got along as far as the
_middle of the barley-corn_, you should take your barley and _dry it_. How
easy would every family, and especially every farmer, do this, if it were
not for the punishment attached to it! The persons in the "unkent places"
before mentioned, dry the malt in their _oven_! But let us hope that the
labourer will soon be able to get malt without exposing himself to
punishment as a _violater of the law_.

KEEPING COWS.

111. As to the _use_ of _milk_ and of that which proceeds from milk, in a
family, very little need be said. At a certain age bread and milk are
_all_ that a child wants. At a later age they furnish one meal a day for
children. Milk is, at all seasons, good to _drink_. In the making of
puddings, and in the making of _bread_ too, how useful is it! Let any one
who has eaten none but baker's bread for a good while, taste bread
home-baked, mixed with milk instead of with water; and he will find what
the difference is. There is this only to be observed, that in _hot
weather_, bread mixed with milk will not _keep so long_ as that mixed with
water. It will of course turn _sour_ sooner.

112. Whether the milk of a cow be to be consumed by a cottage family in
the shape of milk, or whether it be to be made to yield butter, skim-milk,
and buttermilk, must depend on circumstances. A woman that has no child,
or only one, would, perhaps, find it best to make _some butter_ at any
rate. Besides, skim-milk and bread (the milk being boiled) is quite strong
food enough for any children's breakfast, even when they begin to go to
work; a fact which I state upon the most ample and satisfactory
experience, very seldom having ever had any other sort of breakfast myself
till I was more than ten years old, and I was in the fields at work full
four years before that. I will here mention that it gave me singular
pleasure to see a boy, just turned of _six_, helping his father to _reap_,
in Sussex, this last summer. He did little, to be sure