07 



it is, that the culture of so useful a crop should be check- 

 ed by improvident sanction, and the laying an unequal 



me the following obsenrations on the subject of bear, and on 

 the feeding of horses with that article. 



" When bear, or what is called big in England, is of the 

 same weight, I give the preference to big, i. Because it pro- 

 duces the finest worts and distilled spirits; and, 2. Because 

 it has less draff or grains. 3. It will produce more meal, 

 finer, fairer, and more palatable for bread. 4. It is better 

 calculated for pot barley, because it is shorter in the grain 

 than the two-rowed barley, therefore not so much waste to 

 bring it to shape ; it boils softer and eats sweeter. 5. It is 

 brtter for feeding horses than barley, and better than oats 

 for horses not much wrought in dry countries, but not so 

 good as oats in wet countries, or in wet roads, where horses 

 require more heating food *. But were I to feed horses to 

 most advantage, I would feed with beans and oats, but 

 ground as small as malt. It is hardly to be conceived, the 

 difference of the ease to a hard-wrought horse who has ground 

 meal to eat, and one that has his oats to eat whole, as he has 

 not half the time to rest as the one that has ground corn, and 

 cannot perform the same libour, or last so long. This is a 

 most important consideration where so many horses are ne- 

 cessary tor agriculture ; and a very trifling expence would 

 add a grinding machine to the thrashing-mills, for all jtfis 

 corn necessary for feeding the horses and pigs on a farm, 

 The difference of price between barley and bear can only bt 

 from the weight, and perhaps something in the soil, and ear- 

 liness or lateness of the harvest ; but both being equal, I 

 would give the best price for bear, for eirher beer, spirits, or 

 bread-corn. 



That bear is not more cultivated and in higher request, is 

 owing more to prejudice than any thing else j for it is well 

 known, that it produces more seeds than barley, and is less 

 injurious to the ground ; and may be sown for twenty years 

 r>u the same ground, without either lessening the produce or 

 impairing the quality, provided the land is fallowed before 



* According to this remark, big would he the bet food for Uor? In 

 England and Scotland, during tbe um;er wtion. which wo"H be * JJTV 

 point to establish. 



