OF LIVE STOCK. 129 



er, who did credit to his profession, (Mr Thomas Scott of 

 Craiglockhart), that of late years yams have been by many 

 substituted for the evening feed. He adds, that if work 

 horses can be subsisted with equal advantage on yams and 

 Swedish turnips, what a promising prospect for increasing 

 the growth of wheat, and bringing fields to a high state of 

 cultivation, without losing a crop ? One acre of yams or 

 Swedish turnips, will afford more subsistence to cattle, and 

 he maintained, to horses also, than two of oats, or any other 

 sort of grain. By some, potatoes are preferred to the Swedes, 

 being of a more laxative nature, and consequently better cal- 

 culated for horses, when they are chiefly fed on dry meat. 



Mr Gray of Gorgicmoor, on such soils as have too great 

 a proportion of clay for growing potatoes to advantage, 

 plants yams for his horses, and always keeps the land in 

 open drills, from the time they are planted, till the crop is 

 taken up, that is to say, without harrowing them down, as 

 is done with the other drills ; and, if it is not a very wet 

 season, he has from thirty to forty bolls per acre. 



In regard to the objection, that raw potatoes, or yams, 

 are narcotic and deleterious, and give the gripes to horses, 

 that is easily prevented, by giving them when the horses 

 are cool, and at first in small quantities, increasing them 

 gradually for some days. They will then do no harm. If 

 horses get, at the beginning, a full feed of them, more 

 especially if they have not before been accustomed to po- 

 tatoes, they are very apt to be griped, and sometimes 

 fatally. 



Mr Paterson of Castle- Huntly states, that he is prepa- 

 ring to steam yams and potatoes, which is coming much 

 into practice in the Carse of Gowrie. He has no doubt, 

 that it will be a great saving in feeding beasts of every 

 description, and, when deprived of their pernicious juices, 

 abundantly wholesome. If given raw, to horses especialiy 



VOL. I. I 



