91 



poses of rye-grass, particularly as a mixture with clover, 

 supports more stock, and does not equally exhaust. In 

 regard to rye-grass, either cut green, or converted into 

 hay, a person of much experience in the management of 

 horses, (Mr Alexander Maclaurin of Edinburgh), consi- 

 ders rye-grass mixed with clover, as a strong, pleasant 

 and substantial food for horses even at hard work, and 

 every season he has given it green, even to post-horses, 

 in the stable, and it has answered well. He is also of 

 opinion, that hay made of clover and rye-grass, if cut at 

 a proper season, (before the plants are too ripe,) if safe- 

 ly got in, and properly thatched, so as to prevent it from 

 the winter rains, instead of becoming dry and husky, as 

 some people imagine, improves by time, and is much fit- 

 ter for the use and benefit of horses, than if used some 

 months before, and indeed will retain this perfection all 

 the ensuing summer, autumn, and next winter ; on the 

 supposition, always, that it is preserved from rain. Good 

 old hay, for that reason, always gives a higher price than 

 new. In a comparative view of rye-grass, mixed with 

 clover, and meadow hay, the former is to be accounted 

 far preferable to the other, on account of its strength and 

 substance, by which horses are enabled the better to stand 

 hard work. The fibres of meadow-hay are soft and small, 

 and according to Mr Maclaurin's opinion, dissolve sooner 

 in a horse's stomach, consequently not so proper for hard- 

 working horses as the other. If cocksfoot, however, would 

 answer all the purposes of rye- grass, without exhausting 

 the land, what an advantage ? ^ 



The cultivation of artificial grasses in Scotland, is al- 

 ' ready so generally known, and will be so fully detailed, 

 in he General Report now drawing up, of the Husban- 

 dry of Scotland, that it does not seem necessary to dwell 

 upon it longer in this place. We shall proceed, there- 



