268 OF CROPS USUALLY CULTIVATED. 



be checked by improvident enactments, imposing a higher 

 duty on bear, in proportion to its value, than on barley. 



When barley was sown under the old system of manage- 

 ment, without fallow, it was found necessary to sow it late 

 in the season, for destroying a greater quantity of weeds ; 

 but now, when the land is cleaned so much both of seed 

 and root-weeds, barley can seldom be sown too early in dry 

 lands. Sowing it in the beginning of March is the best 

 means of securing an abundant crop, and of superior qua- 

 lity. Mr Wight of Ormiston has often seen barley sown 

 on the winter-furrow, early in March, and it never failed 

 to produce an abundant crop, particularly upon clays. It 

 is remarked, however, that with early sowing there is less 

 straw. Some farmers contend, that clover succeeds better 

 after wheat than after barley, owing to the straw being 

 stronger ; but that opinion is contradicted by the experience 

 of many respectable practitioners, who state, that in a dry 

 spring, it is almost impossible to make grass seeds vegetate 

 among winter-sown wheat, unless it is very strongly har- 

 rowed. Clover always succeeds best with spring-plough- 

 ing, and hardly ever fails after barley, unless that crop is 

 lodged : to guard against too weighty a crop, less seed should 

 be used. 



3. Oats. There is no species of grain that succeeds bet- 

 ter in Scotland than the oat, and it is the crop for which by 

 far the greatest part of that country is the best calculated ; 

 indeed, taking the after crops into consideration, it will, on 

 the whole, be found the most profitable. Convinced of the su- 

 perior advantages of this crop, some farmers have given up 

 sowing barley or bear entirely, except upon land that cannot 

 be cleared of turnips till the months of April or May, as from 

 two to three bolls more of oats may be expected per acre,* 



* Dr Young, near Stonehaven, informs me, that he has had 15 bolls 



