gb _ on grinding oat mea’. June 2%. 
and proprietor to fhare the full benefits of the soil,-there 
are several obstacles, particularly fhort leases, a diversi- 
‘ty of weights and measures; services, multures, frauds in 
mixing meal, and the universal ‘practice of grinding meal 
small in‘the north of Scotland. I am convinced that 
what improvements have been lately made, are owing to 
the granting long leases ; but-still the practice is far from 
being general; the slavery of ‘services is daily waxing 
into desuetude ; the high multures paid at the mills would 
require a particular consideration; the use of different 
weights and measures creates a confusion in calculation, 
and occasions a lofs to the ignorant seller. I fhall briefly 
hint the frauds in mixture; but my chief intention is te 
_ represent the folly practised at the mills in grinding the 
-meal, 
The use of oat meal is confined to a very narrow circle. 
Rye is ‘the common ‘food on the continent, and Scotland 
is‘unhappy from its having few markets to dispose of its 
‘superfluous grain. 
For this reason, I cannot help thinking that Dr Smith 
was warped by local prejudice when he proposed abolith- 
ing the bounty on corn, which is only payable when the 
farmer cannot have a sufficient recompence for his labour 
at'home. | It surely is the duty of an enlightened legisla- 
‘ture to procure, if pofsible, a certain market, with a reason- 
able profit, either at home or abroad; nothing else can 
guard against a famine in one year, and the commodity 
being too cheap in another. 
As the consumption of oat meal is confined to a few 
places, it cught to be the ebject of every cultivator to 
enlarge, as much as pofsible, the confined market; yet by a 
strange fatality, from exaction of high multures, and the 
different methods of grinding the grain, this narrow mar- 
ket is rendered -still mote contracted.. Thus, when there 
is.more meal in one place, than is necefsary for the con- | 
