129 



Tlie proceedings of the first agricultural societies in our 

 islands, bear record to the great crops of florin that have 

 been raised within their respective limits, and that their 

 cultivators were honoured with premiums, after a rigid 

 examination by respectable members of their own, and 

 the examination, upon oath, of those employed in mea- 

 suring the area, saving and weighing the hay ; — I allude to 

 the Farming Society, Ireland, the Highland So- 

 ciety", Scotland, and the Bath and AYest of 

 England Agricultural Society; who have all previously 

 encouraged, and afterwards in their proceedings recom- 

 mended, the cultivation of this grass, I must observe that 

 the average amount of hay from an acre of meadow is 

 stated by Mr. Curwen, before the discovery of florin, 

 to be one ton and half to the English acre. 



It has been objected, when the enormous crops of florin 

 hay was stated, that this hay is not so elFcctually dried as 

 common hay, and therefore must weigh heavier. 



To obviate this objection, the Farming Society of Ire- 

 land, when they proposed premiums for the best crops of 

 florin hay, made it a condition, to ensure its being in a 

 quite dry state, that the weight certifled to them on oath, 

 should not be taken before March 1st. 



A pupil, Mr. Watt, obtained the first premium £50, 

 his produce of an English acre, weighed in March, amount- 

 ing to six tons, sixteen hundred, three quarters, and four- 

 teen pounds. 



While mine, to which the second premium was ad- 

 judged, £30, amounted only to five tons, nineteen hundred, 

 two quarters, and seventeen pounds. 



These amounts appear on the records of the Farming 

 Society of Ireland, short indeed of those which were often 

 stated before, upon high authority, to have reached eight 



