NEW MALTING ESTABLISHMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1103, 19 July 1879, Page 2

NEW MALTING ESTABLISHMENT.

Messrs Dickesox axd Btjrxktt, Brewers, of Ngaruawahia, have added to their establishment a malting- hou.se, with all the necessary appliauoes, intending to make their own malt upon the premises. The matter is one worthy of something more than a passing 1 notice. This movement of our enterprising fellow settlers, I at Ngaruawahia, moans a market for a . new staple of Waikato production, which has bsen hitherto neglected. Barley enters but little into the rotation of the Waikato farmer. Speaking from memory, a score or two oE acres is the outside growth of barley m the district. But other brewers will find it noces.siny to follow suit, and thavo will henceforth be a steady demand for the grain, a certain sale for a considerable quantity, ;iud at a not less price than five shillings per bushel. "With a secured market, barley should find its pl'ioo m the rotation on many of our Waikato farms, -whore the roil is. light and warm, and tolerably rich. In the four-cour.-e system at homo, barley takes its plac*e after Avinter fed turnips, and is sown along with clover and ryegrass, the latter being called " seeds," and again plonked m as " lea,"" the second autumn for wheat. When the barky crop is required for malting purposes, more than ordinary care must be taken m the preparation of the ground. The soil must be brought to a flue tilth, and the seed of the whole field sown the same day. "Unless the soil is uniformly flue, the seed will not spring at the same time, and the barley will no! malt well, for it will sprout just as unevenly, and will be fit only for feeding purposes. As a ride, the crop is heavier than wheat, and, therefore, with a certain good price, the more profitable to grow, besides being more suitable on light soils, and more adapted than wheat to being sown with grass and clover seed at the same time.