THE CULTIVATION OF MALTING BARLEY, 2.

Otago Witness, Issue 1805, 25 June 1886, Page 6

THE CULTIVATION OF MALTING BARLEY, 2.

' By J. C. M'Caetie. Author of " A Handbook for Australian Brewers."

This (defect No. 2) may be described as a hard or tough character of grain. It is very common in this colony, and is due, I believe, to growth int unsuitable soil. Stiff clay land, rich virgin alluvium, or over-manured soil, are all unsuitable for barley growing ; and though they may produce coarse, thick-skinned grain of enormous size and weight, and therefore pleasant to the eye of the farmer, such grain is disliked by the maltster and is the abomination of the brewer, for it yields a hard, inferior malt, and finally unsound beer.

The best land for barley growing is a light warm, limestone soil, and this fact ns doubt accounts for the superiority of the barley grown in the Oamaru district for malting purposes. Some of the Oamaru barley indeed is very excellent, and if a little more care in cultivating, saving, grading, &c. were taken with it, it would run the best English barley' very close in point of quality. Rich sandy and other dry soils are also capable, in good seasons, of producing excellent malting barleys. This is, to the best of my knowledge, the character of the soil in the Frankton district, Lake Wakatipu (they may Lave a limestone subsoil there — perhaps some correspondent will correct me if I am /wrong ?), where very excellent barley is grown. It would be very hard indeed to beat some of the Lake , barleys for condition and yield of extract when malted, though this year I feel bound to say the samples I have seen from that district have not been up to the average of other years. I may be pardoned for digressing here to remark that it struck me, when in that part of the country last summer, that some of the sandy or almost " gravelly" soil in the Manapouri district would grow good barley, and that the experiment will be well worth trying when means of communication become better.

If too much manure or other decaying vegetable matter — such as the remnants of a turnip crop — be present in soil in which barley is grown, such barley will have a thick, coarse skin and tough kernel, and will be utterly unsuited to malting or brewing purposes owing to its excessive richness in nitrogenous matter. The nitrogenous matter derived from manure, &c. is found in the grain combined with other bodies to form " gluten," or albumen, and this gluten is a source of great trouble to the brewer for reasons too complicated to explain in a paper like this. As barley contains much magnesia, the presence of this mineral in soil in which it is grown is highly desirable. The following analysis, of the ash of barley may be of interest to my readers, as showing the minerals the cereal contains : — Percentage of ash on whole grain ... ... 2"13 Silica ... ... ... ... 25-27 Phosphoric acid ... ... 3205 Sulphuric acid ... ... 095 Carbonic acid ... ... ... 037 Lime ... ... ... ... 241 Magnesia ... ... ... 839 Peroxide of iron ... ... 076 Potash ... . ... ... 2630 Soda ... ... ... ... 1-22 Chloride of potassium... ... o*6B Chloride of sodium ... ... reo 100-00 The sulphuric and carbonic acids mentioned in the above analysis are most probably combined with bases, such as the lime or magnesia, to form sulphate, carbonate of lime, &o. It is to be deplored that certain of our farmers do not study a little the question of suitability or otherwise of soil for barley growing purposes, for at the present time many of them waste much time and energy in endeavouring to cultivate malting barley in soil no more suited to that purpose than it is to the growth of pineapples. I will not particularise districts, but I must state that in this province much barley is grown on utterly unsuitable land, and offered to maltsters as really good malting barley — generally to meet with rejection, however, though one or two sanguine buyers, deceived by the bulk and weight of the grain, may purchase a sample or two now and again. I have now pointed out that the production of a large and heavy grain on over-manured, virgin, or other heavy soils is not at all desirable if the barley is to be malted, and I trust have said enough to convince my readers that every soil is not capable of growing good malting barley. , The defect in barleys that I will place third

is that of broken or chipped grains. This is an exceedingly common detect, aud is the result of careless Threshing or " dressing." The evil it works the maltster is very great, and arises from the fact that when the saturated grain is spread out on the malting floor to germinate, mould attacks the damaged grains and from them spreads to the sound grain, thereby spoiling it and rendering it almost unfit for brewing purposes. Even to those knowing nothing of brewing it will at once be apparent that it is impossible to brew good beer from mouldy malt. In warm weather it is utterly impossible for the maltster to combat the spread of mould if the germinating barley contains many broken or " close dressed " corns, and farmers should therefore do their best to avoid undue cuttiug or kuocking about of grain at threshing time. Defect No. 4 — irregularity in size of grain — is much more common in some districts than in others. This arises from the fact that some farmers have the good sense to " grade " their barleys before submitting them for sale to the maltster, while others do not take the trouble to " grade," or think if they did so that the small grain would be a dead loss to them. This latter system is false economy with a vengeance, for the intermixture of small grain loweis the value of the whole bulk, and thereby causes more actual loss than if the " small " were removed and sold for milling or feed purposes. To the maltster the intermixture of small corns is decidedly au evil, as the light pickles seldom germinate properly, and even if made into malt yield but little extract (and that little of inferior quality) in the after process of brewing. We may therefore safely say that if a maltster purchases a parcel of barley containing 12 per cent, of , small corns, he must in justice to himself _l>sy a price for it less by 12 per cent, than he would if the parcel contained no small corns. It would be more satisfactory to all parties concerned if the farmers " graded " their barleys before submitting them for sale, and I think any extra expense and trouble incurred by doing so would soon be compensated for by the extra price received for the best parcels.

In England one cause of irregularity in size and condition of grain is the fact of growth in small fields which are surrounded by high hedgerows or by trees, which, casting long shadows and filiffusing moisture irregularly, cause uneven growth and ripening ; but this cause can hardly apply to this colony, where barley is grown in large open areas, every part of which receives rain aud warmth equally. Of course it is impossible to secure absolute uniformity of grain, as even the best land is " patchy," growing good grain in one place and bad in another, owing to differences in character of soil, presence of springs underneath the surface, &c. &c. ; but careful selection and grading will usually prodnce a grain pleasing even to the most captious maltster.

In. concluding my remarks on size of barley, I would state that the long, thin, " starved " grain too frequently seen in New Zealand is not what the maltster wants at all, for it grows slowly and irregularly on the floors, and when finished off makes a hard, gritty, or " ricey " malt, full of raw starch, and consequently of little value to the brewer. The right sort of barley for malting purposes is that short in grain, but smooth, plump^ and round. Such a grain grows easily on the floors, and makes a friable, floury, well-flavoured malt, that contains little or no unaltered starch, yields a large extract, and gives a beer that can be depended upon to keep sound for any reasonable time, and to be palatable in the highest degree.