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The produce of seed per acre, depends on a variety of cir-*umstances, such as the proportion of rye-grass plants in thecrop, and the light handling of the hay in making j but hard-ly exceeds eighteen bushels of seed to the acre, even in fa-vourable circumstances, which may be worth five shillings abushel in years of ordinary abundance and moderate demand.
Where a farmer is possessed of rye-grass of good quality,which he wishes to propagate, for his own use, or for sale, per-haps it were better to cultivate this by itself on purpose, un-mixed with clover. This is the true mode of cultivating rye-grass for seed, and double the quantity will be produced. Inthis case, the entire crop ought to be put up in sheaves andstooks, and built into a rick or ricks to preserve it over win-ter for threshing in spring, and the whole managed exactlyas a crop of grain. Under these circumstances the remain-ing hay, or rather rye-grass straw, is very worthless as fod-der ; and the soil on which it grew, ought to be consider-ed as having-carried a grain crop, and managed accordinglyin the subsequent course of cropping.
Owing to the lateness of the climate in Scotland , few at-tempts have been made, to save the seeds of any of the clovers ;which therefore are annually imported from England or Hol-land. It consists, however, with the experience of the repor-ter, that the yellow species, or trefoil, usually called hop-clover,effectually ripens its seed every year, when allowed to standlong enough for that purpose. He has accordingly savedsome occasionally for his own use; but was unacquainted withthe manner of removing the shells or husks, so as to fit it formarket. The seeds even of white clover, are often perfectlyripened in Scotland , but no instance has ever occurred oftheir being saved for sale.
The produce of cultivated grass varies, of course, accord-,n g to soils and seasons. A poor crop of hay may consist of100 stones of 22|. pounds avoirdupois, or 20 cwt. A goodcrop may extend to double that quantity, or 200 stones, andfrom that to 250, or even 300 stones, which latter is a very