10^ Agricultural Intelligence, Feb. 



veral fields were only fown about the end of laft month. Spring 

 wheat is noiv very common In tiie early dillri£ts, and, in dry warm 

 feafoas, has ofcen been cultivated with advantage. Where the tur- 

 nip-hufbandry is general, tliis mode mull neceflarily be followed, 

 or the alternative adopted of fowing upon clover-ftubbles. Re- 

 peated trials have, however, afccrtained, that the culture of oats, 

 after the clovers, s more beneficial than that of wheat. Acling 

 UDon this principle, fpring wheat is uiually fown after turnips in 

 mtny counties, and the grain fo produced is often found fuperior 

 to what is fown in the autumnal and winter months. 



We obferve that meetings of the landed intereft have been held 

 in fcveral counties, to take under confideration the additional duty 

 imjjofed lafl year upon malt. In all former bills, a lefier duty 

 was 'tTipofed upon barley and bear, manufactured into malt in 

 Sotland, than in England ; and it was fuppofed that this diflinc- 

 tlon was founded upon juilice and expedience. That fome dif- 

 trlfts in Scotland raife barley, equal to what is ufually produced 

 in England, we are difpofed to admit ; but in the northern, and 

 particularly in the weflern diflricls, where the climate is late, and 

 big- ox hear generally taken inftead of barley, an equal tax is un- 

 doubtedly a grievous opprefTion. Notwithftanding of the nume^ 

 rous and beneficial improvements which have taken place in thefe 

 quarters, yet none of them can pofTibly meliorate the climate, 

 which remains cold and wet, backward to vegetation, and un- 

 friendly to the harvefting the article upon which the duty is to 

 be levied. A departure from the fyftem of taxation, maintain- 

 ed fince the union, forms the caufe of complaint made by the 

 different counties ; and, in our humble opinion, it deferves ferious 

 attention. We are glad to fee landed proprietors take up fuch 

 matters, for they lie particularly within their province ; and, 

 through their endeavours, the wi(hed-for redrefs can only be ob- 

 tained. We fugged the propriety of permitting Engliih barley 

 imported into Scotland, and manufaftured there, to be taxed in 

 the fame ratio, as if it had been malted in England ; and to this 

 meafure no well-founded obje£l:ions can be urged. Indeed an 

 equal malt-duty, in this cafe, would prove highly beneficial to 

 Scottifh hufbandry ; the fuperior quality of En;Tliib grain, efpe- 

 clally in fcafons like the lafl, gives it a decided preference in all the 

 northern counties, and makes home raifed-grain meet a market 

 under a pofitive diladvantage. This fubjeCl is well elucidated in 

 the Fife and Moray reports, and in the Glafgow letter, of intelli- 

 gence prefented in paQ;es 120, 121, and 122, of this number. 



We flate with pleafure the continued and increafing endeavours 

 of the Farming Society of Ireland, to benefit the hufbandry of 

 t^iat country; and; in the inilancc wc are i^ow to mention, the good 



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