Probably one of the most flourishing enterprises in the King's County is the malting business carried on by the Messrs John and Abraham Tarleton of Tullamore, an enterprise, too we are glad to note, which benefits labour as well as capital, in as much as employment to at least 50 men during the malting season, from October to May.

These are the sort of industries that do real substantial service to the country, because speculations in which employers grasp at the lion's share of the profits and leave labour to eke out existence with a torn coat and a hungry stomach may benefit capitalists and enable them to realise rapid fortunes, but, as they breed discontent amongst the underpaid labouring population, they are more injurious than serviceable to the body-polite. It would be an advantage if we had in Ireland more employers like the Messrs Tarleton of Tullamore. They pay their people at a rate which enables the working man to live decently and incites him to perform his duties with zeal and energy as well as to make him contented with his lot, while we all know that in a great many instances the labourer is so harshly treated that it would be unreasonable to expected him to be reconciled to his condition. Hence the working man too frequently becomes the tool of the political agitator and an clement of mischief in the social system. And this train of reflection, taken in connection with what is now going on under the name of the labour league in England and America, forces us to the conclusion that not alone do we want in Ireland money and enterprise, but we also want just and generous employers, who will give labour a reasonable share of the profit it contributes to realise.

Were this view more generally acted on the demegogue would have fewer followers in this country. The malting houses of the Messrs. Tarleton are three in number. Sixteen on Tankard-road, one in Charleville Square, and one in Distillery Lane. So extensive are those buildings that were they all together they would present the proportions of a tidy little town. The houses are all in a splendid state of repair and are remarkable for scrupulous cleanliness. The stores are capable of containing 16,000 barrels of barley, and an idea may be formed of the quantity that is malted each season when we state that every fourth day 250 barrels are steeped in the cisterns. As most of our renders are aware, the object of stooping the barley is to cause the grain to absorb the necessary amount of moisture to start the germination requisite to convert its starchy matter into glucose. The time the barley is left in the steep varies according to the weather and temperature. In summer from 40 to 48 hours will be sufficient, and in winter from 65 to 70 hours. After the barley is taken out of the steep it is couched - that is, placed in a heap in a couch frame or on the floor of the malting house, where it soon begins to heat and germinate, the rootless shooting out and the corn giving forth a fruity odour. After four or five days in the couch, the barley is put through the third process, or that of flooring, which consists in spreading it out on the floor in thinner strain. As soon as it becomes perceptibly dry to the kilns are hardened with artificial boat to prevent all further growth and enable it to keep without fear of change. The Messrs. Tarleton sell all their malt to brewers and distillers in Ireland.

The small barley sifted from the grain intended to be malt is ground into barley meal, and this is used for stall feeding heifers and bullocks for 60 head of cattle. Every year they fatten and sell about 200 beasts. The reader may be able to realise the extent and condition of the entire premises, whom he has informed that the Messrs. Tarleton pay in taxes annually as much as £150. The malting business is managed by Mr. John Dargan, a skilful maltster and brewer of 20 years. The proprietors have recently expended a great deal of money in repairing, improving and extending the buildings, some of which were in a bad state of dilapidation on coming into their hands.