06 



crop of grass, he observes, is almost constantly good or 

 bad, in proportion as the ground is more or less pulve- 

 rised j and as bear may be sown three, or perhaps four 

 weeks later than barley, it may be done at a season when 

 the land can be brought to a finer tilth. If the grain 

 crop should happen to fall over, as bear will be sooner 

 ripe than barley, by being earlier taken off the ground, 

 the danger of rotting the grass is less ; besides, that it 

 has thus an opportunity of being well advanced before 

 winter, if the autumn should prove good ; and in this 

 climate October is often a mild month. In northern dis- 

 tricts the earliest grains ought to be cultivated ; and barley 

 is not only later than bear, but it requires to stand longer 

 in the stook before it be fit for stacking. No doubt bar- 

 ley is the more valuable grain of the two ; but that can- 

 not be put in competition with the risk of a late and pre - 

 carious harvest, and perhaps the loss, or at least the de- 

 terioration of the two following crops of grass, and by 

 which, not only the food for cattle is lessened, but the 

 land becomes fouler ; for weeds will vegetate if the land 

 be unoccupied. The produce also from bear will be 

 found to be greater than from barley, although perhaps 

 overlooked by the farmer, as he generally sows the lat- 

 ter on his best land. On tolerable farms, the inferior 

 land will yield nearly as much bear as the best will bar- 

 ley ; and had bear been substituted on the latter, the pro- 

 duce would have been much greater. But on ordinary 

 land, yielding a tolerable crop of bear, there will be a 

 considerable deficiency of barley *. How unfortunate 



* Mr Grierson, late corn merchant in Leith, who had much 

 experience and knowledge in the corn-trade, transmitted to 



