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108 ANNUAL REGISTER

The lee thus made is then put into the cistern, or cask, set into the ground level with the floor of the office, in which a person is employed in seeping off straw for the burner, till all the lees are sucked up. At the same time another person is employed in burning that straw, so taken out of the cistern; which burning will produce either solid or light ashes, whichsoever the intention is to make.

Now to make solid ashes, the lee must be made as before described; and those less should be burnt up with peas or bean straw only. But to make light or comby ashes, (of which we make by much the greatest quantity, and of this kind of ashes, the finest in the kingdom) the lees should be made as before, with this difference only, they must be stronger; and instead of peas and bean straw, it would be better to burn barley, wheat, and clover straw, mixed with little peas straw.

After the vats are through the third time, they are emptied, and the ashes, which are called pot-ash muck, make excellent manure for some kids of foil, particularly cold, and the loose woodcock foil.

From this manure there have been prodigious crops of corn, especially peas, and from the following method:

After the peas are set, pot-ash muck has been cast by hand over the land, and afterwards run over with a bush-harrow, which fill up the holes, or cavities in the land with the ashes; and this has never been known to fail.

The principal inducement to make pot-ash is, for the muck; and this is evident from an observation often made, that nobody makes pot-ash but those whose land requires fresh manure.

A farmer in the county of Effex, who rented about two hundred pounds a year, and was thought to pay so dear for his land, that his neighbours concluded he would not hold it long; yet, to their great surprise, he had better crops than any of them, and in the space of fifteen or sixteen years got a pretty fortune; all of which success he, with great justice, attributed to a pot-ash office he had erected on his ground. It is also remarkable, this farmer's land was clear of weeds, when the neighbouring fields were choaked up them. He found the pot-ash muck agree with any crop on his land, which was rather stiff and cold, though good wheat land when properly tilled. He had amazing crops of barley, but he almost always sowed his barley on a good sallow, and a fine tilth.

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Method of ripening any quantity of Wort, and of effectually raising a bushel of Flour with a tea-spoonful of Barm; by James Stone, of Amport, in Hampshire.

When you have boiled and strained off the hops from your first copper of wort, then take two or three quarts, put it into something where it my lie thin, in order to cool quick, and in about an hour's time you find it just warm; you then take a tea-spoonful of barm, put it into it, and in two or three hours you will find it come to a head; by this time you may have got some more cold, and then take the two or three quarts and put them into four or 

For the YEAR 1772. 109

or five gallons, and they will bring it to a head (or, as it is called, to be ripe); in two or three hours more than add these to a hogshead, and all will soon be ripe, by virtue of that tea-spoonful only.

As to baking; suppose you want to bake a bushel of flour, and have but one tea-spoonful of barm, you then put your flour into your kneeding-trough or trendle, and then take about three quarters of a pint of warm water, and take the tea-spoonful of thick steady barm and put it into the water, stir it until it is thoroughly mixed with the water; then make a hole in the middle of the flour large enough to contain two gallons of water, pour in your small quantity; then take a stick about two feet long, (which you may keep for that purpose) and stir in some of the flour, until it is as thick as you would make batter for a pudding; then strew some of the dry flour over it, and go about your usual business for about one hour; then take about a quart of warm water more and pour it, for in one hour you will find that small quantity raised so, that it will break through the dry flour which you shook over it; when you have poured in the quart of warm water, take your stick as before, and stir in some more flour, until it is as thick as before; then shake some more dry flour over it, and leave it for two hours more, and then you will find it rise and break through the dry flour again; then you may add three quarts or a gallon of water more, and stir in the flour and make it a thick as at first, and cover it with dry flour again; and in about three or four hours more you may mix up your dough, and then cover it up warm; and in four or five hours more you may put it in the oven, and you will have as light bread as though you put a pint of barm. It does not take above a quarter of an hour more time than the usual way of baking for there is no time lost but that of adding water three or four times.

The author of this method assures us that he constantly bakes this way in the morning about six or seven o'clock, puts the flour out, and puts this small quantity of barm into the before-mentioned quantity of water, in an hour's time some more, in two hours more a greater quantity, about noon makes up the dough, and about six in the evening it is put into the oven, and he has always good bread, never heavy nor bitter.

When you find, he says, your body of flour spunged large enough, before you put in the rest of your water, you should, with both your hands, mix that which is spunged and the dry flour all together, and then add the remainder of warm water, and your dough will rise the better and easier.

The reason he assigns why people make heavy bread is, not because they have not barm enough, but because they have not barm enough, but because they do not know that barm is the same to flour as fire is to fuel; that, as a spark of fire will kindle a large body by only blowing of it up, so will a thimble-full of barm, by adding of warm water, raise or spunge any body of flour; for warm water gives fresh life to that which is before at work: so that the reason of making bread heavy is, because the body spunged is not large enough, but was made up and put into the oven before it was ripe.

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