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tons : but these were weighed in IVovember, and much losa 

 must have been sustained by those kept until March. 



The quantity of florin crops being effectually ascer- 

 tained by so many respectable testimonies, it remains to 

 establish their quality; and this we can do in two ways, — 

 a priori, and a posteriori. 



To commence with the latter; we have an excellent test 

 of the quality of hay, the partiality which cattle show for 

 it: and here we have witnesses without end. 



For years the horses of all strangers that came to my 

 house, and especially those whose object it was to obtain 

 information on the subject of florin grass, were tried with 

 it, and there did not occur one instance, except in cases of 

 hunger, where any horse who had tasted florin, would touch 

 a bundle of common hay when offered to him; for having 

 once smelled the second sort he rejected it, and looked 

 about for the florin. 



My cows were often tried by the curious, and showed 

 the same decided preference. It was a common trick with 

 my children, to hide a bundle of florin hay, under a mass 

 of common hay, and then to turn a cow to it ; the beast 

 invariably smelt the florin, and tossed the bundle with 

 her horns, until she got access to it. 



My sheep, in the same manner, always in winter fastened 

 on my florin cock ; as, for years, I built two in my sheep 

 field to ascertain the point ; and I am permitted to quote 

 the testimony of my fiiend the Earl of Gosford, who, 

 having slept at my house, observed, early in the morning, 

 all my sheep gathered round the florin cock, and not one 

 of them touching the common hay. 



Our proof, a priori, of the good quality of florin hay is 

 equally decisive ; the value of any vegetable food with 

 which we sustain our domestic cattle, is best estimated by 



