chiltern-barley

There is likewise another reason that has brought a disreputation on some of the Chiltern-barley, and that is, the too often sowing of one and the same piece of Ground, whereby its spirituous, nitrous and sulphureous qualities are exhausted and worn out, by the constant attraction of its best juices for the nutriment of the Grain: To supply which, great quantities of Dungs are often incorporated with such Earths, whereby they become impregnated with four, adulterated, unwholsome qualities, that so affect the Barley that grows therein, as to render it incapable of making such pure and sweet Malts, as that which is sown in the open Champaign-fields, whose Earths are constantly rested every third Year called the Fallow-season, in order to discharge their crude, phlegmatick and sour property, by the several turnings that the Plough gives them part of a Winter and one whole Summer, which exposes the rough, clotty loose parts of the Ground, and by degrees brings them into a condition of making a lodgment of those saline benefits that arise from the Earths, and afterwards fall down, and redound so much to the benefit of all Vegetables that grow therein, as being the essence and spring of Life to all things that have root, and tho' they are first exhaled by the Sun in vapour from the Earth as the spirit or breath thereof, yet is it return'd again in Snows, Hails, Dews, etc. more than in Rains, by which the surface of the Globe is saturated; from whence it reascends in the juices of Vegetables, and enters into all those productions as food, and nourishment, which the Creation supplies.

Anonymous - The London and Country Brewer