298 OF CROPS USUALLY CULTIVATED. 



imagine, improves by time, and is much fitter 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 

 tiew of rye-grass mixed with clover, and meadow-hay, the 

 former is to be accounted much 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 mea- 

 dow-hay are soft and small, and according to Mr Maclau- 

 rin's opinion, dissolve sooner in a horse's stomach, conse- 

 quently, not so proper for hard-working horses as the other. 

 Mr John Shirreff remarks, that every cultivated vegetable, 

 is more nutritious, than a natural and wild one of the same 

 sort. The hay of a natural meadow, cannot possibly be ob- 

 tained, in a state equally perfect as that of cultivated herb- 

 age, because, being composed of many plants, some of 

 which are faded, some too young, some wiry and run to 

 seed, and some fresh and in flower, they cannot assimilate 

 into a homogeneous fragrant mass, so readily as the other. 

 Clover hay, therefore, always sells higher than natural mea- 

 dow-hay, whether low or upland. 



Mr Robertson of Ladykirk states, that from long expe- 

 rience, they find, in Berwickshire, perennial rye-grass to 

 be peculiarly valuable. It is the earliest and latest grass 

 they have, but it should be fed close, and not allowed to go 

 to seed, otherwise it will exhaust the land.* Mr Andrew 

 of Tillilumb observes, that he has never found a mixture 

 of rye-grass among clover prejudicial to the ground, pro- 



* Mr John Shirreff is of opinion, that annual rye-grass is more relish- 

 ed by stock, and carries a heavier crop. 



