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.

Here then may appear the excellency of steeping Seed-barley in a liquor
lately invented, that impregnates and loads it with Nitre and other Salts
that are the nearest of all others to the true and original Spirit or Salt
of the Earth, and therefore in a great measure supplies the want thereof
both in inclosure and open Field; for even in this last it is sometimes
very scarce, and in but small quantities, especially after a hot dry
Summer and mild Winter, when little or no Snows have fell to cover the
Earth and keep this Spirit in; by which and great Frosts it is often much
encreased and then shews itself in the warmth of well Waters, that are
often seen to wreak in the cold Seasons. Now since all Vegetables more or
less partake of those qualities that the Soil and Manures abound with in
which they grow; I therefore infer that all Barley so imbibed, improves
its productions by the ascension of those saline spirituous particles that