24 ox THE AGRICULTURE OF THE 



cart it to the stacks at once than to cole it in the fields, because 

 this system entails great waste. In hay-making the Scotch 

 farmers might advantageously take a lesson from their English 

 brethren, who delight in having their hay green, crisp, and aro- 

 matic. To make a good article, it should be done quickly, so 

 that the juices may all be retained. In order to secure a full 

 aftermath, some leading farmers are now in the habit of top- 

 dressing with a light application of nitrate of soda and dissolved 

 bones ; others use 2 cwt. of Peruvian guano. A mixture of 

 Peruvian guano, nitrate, and common salt in equal proportions, 

 and applied at the rate of 3 to 4 cwt. per acre, has been tried with 

 good results. In the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, the foggage, 

 so forced, is sometimes cut for stall feeding, and in a dripping 

 season the yield is large. The permanent land devoted to the 

 production of hay has been vastly imj^roved in recent years by 

 draining and surface dressing with compost, but there are many 

 portions susceptible of still further improvement. Unless full 

 compensation be made, the scythe is the greatest robber that 

 comes upon a farm. As a rule, the land which is grazed the 

 second year carries a fair head of stock, but grazing on a large 

 scale has not yet drifted in to be one of the branches of farm 

 management observed by the Lothian occupier. 



Any report on grasses produced in the county of Mid-Lothian 

 would be incomplete without a brief notice of the sewage farm- 

 ing carried on at Edinburgh, by which as much as L.4o per acre 

 has been realised from what was originally the poorest of soil. 

 The extent of these forced meadows is at present about 400 acres, 

 and it is gradually increasing. The whole is irrigated with the 

 sewage of Edinburgh, and as it is free of charge, and there is little 

 expense connected with it, through the elevation whence the 

 fluid manurial ingredient comes beihg some 300 feet above, the 

 farming is very profitable. 



At Craigentinny, between Edinburgh and the sea, are the most 

 extensive meadows in Scotland, being about 200 acres, all of which 

 have been under regular irrigation with sewage for upwards of 

 thirty years. A large variety of seeds was put in at the outset, the 

 principal being Italian rye-grass. Most of the sown grasses have 

 disappeared long ago, but in their jAucq has gradually sprung up 

 abundance of natural grasses, which now form a close thick sole. 

 The produce is sold each year, chiefly to cow-keepers, at L.16 to 

 L.28 per acre, and one year the price reached L.44. The crop is 

 cut five times in the season, from the beginning of April to the end 

 of October. The annual proceeds of the farm, which is in the 

 hands of Mr Christie, the owner, amount to between L.3000 and 

 L.4000, the expenditure being merely the wages paid to two men 

 for keeping the ditches in proper order. The gross produce per 

 acre is estimated at 50 to 70 tons. 



