it : tinder this process it immediately resumed its luxuri- 

 ance, and continues to this day, to give me as fine crops 

 of florin as my most highly-cultivated grounds produce. 

 In 1809, my late dear friend and pupil, the Right Ho- 

 nourable Isaac Corry, saw this patch mowed^ and gave 

 an account of its magnificent crop in a letter to the late 

 Speaker, Mr. Abbott, which he published. 



Four years afterwards the Bishop of Derry saw this 

 patch mowed, and weighed a perch of the green sward, 

 which equalled the best crop I had ever cut. 



The power of florin grass to take entire possession of 

 the surface under favourable circumstances, was con- 

 flrmed to me by other observations ; and I learned what 

 circumstances would produce this strange eflect: still, how- 

 ever, I had not courage to press so extraordinary a paradox 

 on the world, as that a grass hitherto little noticed could 

 be made to produce spontaneous crops, far superior to 

 those which our best grasses were used to give, under the 

 most skilful cultivation. 



At length, in autuum 1814, I received a jomt account 

 from my friends Gen. Sir Jaales -Stewart, Coltness, 

 Sir a. M'Kenzie, and Col. Lockhart, of a niagni- 

 flcent crop of spontaneous florin, that had been found in 

 the demesne of the last gentleman, member for Selkirk- 

 shire ; and these respectable amateurs were so good as 

 to transmit to me, a certificate of the v:eight of the crop, 

 with the measure of the area from which it had been cut, 

 taken by a regular surveyor; the amount by the area, pretty 

 much the same with that weighed by the Bishop op 

 Derry on my own meadow. 



Fmding my paradox confirmed by such respectable tes- 

 timony, I no longer hesitated to bring it before the v/orld, 

 and to authenticate it in the best manner I could. 



I selected one of the worst spots in ray demesne, — poor 



