310 OF CROPS USUALLY CULTIVATED. 



winter sort, without which, the people living on the coasts 

 of the Baltic, could hardly be subsisted, is almost unknown.* 

 My principal reason for mentioning it at all is, that on 

 muirish grounds, rye has been found a more certain crop 

 than oats ; a fact little known, but of infinite importance in 

 carrying on the improvement of our barren districts. Mr 

 George Culley remarks, that rye, like oats, will answer on 

 crude soils, without the application of calcareous manures, 

 which renders that crop peculiarly calculated for waste lands, 

 when first brought into cultivation. The principal objec- 

 tion, however, to the culture of rye in Scotland is, that it is 

 an article for which there is at present but little demand, 

 though that would not be the case, were distillation from 

 grain permitted. 



Flax. This is an article that might perhaps be more cul- 

 tivated in some parts of Scotland than hitherto has been 

 the case, but it is far from being an unimportant one, even 

 in its present state. It is supposed, that there are at least 

 5000 acres of flax raised in the country, producing above 

 L.20 per acre, and consequently worth at least L. 100,000, 

 besides furnishing the raw material for a most valuable 

 manufacture. The Board of Trustees at Edinburgh, have 

 printed and circulated very useful directions for the culture 

 and management of flax, with some observations also on the 

 culture of hemp. This last article might be raised, with 

 much advantage, on peaty soils, in the Hebrides, where 

 there is such a command of sea-ware as manure, and where 



* A correspondent informs me, that he has had 35 bushels of rye per 

 Englii-h acre, upon land that would not have produced 20 bushels of oats. 

 Indeed oats sown alongside of the rye, upon the same field, and on land 

 as nearly as could be judged, of the same quality, were scarcely worth 

 the expence of reaping. 



