1803. On the Malt TaXy is'c. 417 



TO THE CONDUCTOR OF THE FARMEr's MAGAZINE. 



On the Milk Tiix, iv'rlh a Propapil for afcertd'inlng the Relative 

 !!^id!it}es of the Barley i of England and Scotland. 



Sir, 



It was but the other day I got your Mp.gazinc of May 

 iaft. Upon the fuhjett of an ccjual niait duty upon grain the 

 produce of Scotland as of England, I have hcanl and read fome 

 fenfc, and much nonfenfe •, but the one who feems to under- 

 ftand the matter mod thoroughly, is your Correfpcndent N. be- 

 ginning in page 224. And the experiment he mentions in page 

 226, to have been tried in the year 1787, upon equui quantities of 

 Norfolk and belt Scots barley, the latter biding 3 hb. per boll 

 Iieavier than the other, would be perfeiStly decifive of the qucRion, 

 had your Correfpondent thought proper to have the facl authenti- 

 cated with the names of the perions who made that experiment. 

 Without that, it is no more than tlie bare affertion of an anony- 

 mous author ; fo cannot be attended to in Parliament. It is too 

 late for this feflion : But as the news-papers tell us, a hint was 

 given, that, upon evidence being produced of the juitice of our 

 Scots claim, to a large diminution of that tax, fo ruinous to our 

 agriculture, rcdrefs would be given; it furely^were well worth 

 while, early after next harveft, to apply to the Commiirioners of 

 Excife, Barons of Exchequer, or other public ollice, to appoint a 

 maitfter, diitiller, and brev»'-er, men in Vv'iiom the Commilfioncrs, 

 &c. have confidence, to repeat the experiment of 1 787-, and ihould 

 the refult be the fame, or nearly fo, get it attefted by the Court 

 that authorized it, and a printed copy fent, under a blank cover> to 

 each member of Parliament in London. I need not add, that 

 this fhould be done as early in next fellion as poffible, that the 

 affair may be taken up without delay ; and our farmers have 

 timeous warning to lay out their land for barley, or give up the 

 fowing of it altogether ; as I apprehend they mull, if no relief, or 

 but a triihng one, is granted on malting. By the general name 

 of barley, I mean every fpecies of grain that is commonly ufed 

 for malting ; for the growth of real barley, t am convinced, is at- 

 tempted in few places in Scotland ; and in fewer can it be cultivated 

 with advantage. What is generally held out as barley, is a mixture 

 of it and bear, which our climate and foil are more adapted to ; 

 and in the part where I live, the farmers have almolb univerfally 

 taken to it, though it muft be a bad crop, as the different grains are? 

 ripe at different times, and cannot fpring equally in malting : in 

 proof of which, I have obferved feveral fields, where, a fortnight 

 3go, a tolerably thick crop of bear was fliot j aiid, this day, going 



round 



