Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/323

Rh SUMMAKY.] AGRICULTURE 301 Ground in Scotland. It appears from this treatise, that the state of the art was not more advanced at that time in North Britain than it had been in England in the time of Lutzherbert. Farms were divided into infield and outfield ; corn crops followed one another without the intervention of fallow, cultivated herbage, or turnips, though something is said about fallowing the outfield ; inclosures were very rare ; the tenantry had not begun to emerge from a state of great poverty and depression ; and the wages of labour, compared with the price of corn, were much lower than at present ; though that price, at least in ordinary years, must appear extremely moderate in our times. Leases for a term of years, however, were not uncommon ; but the want of capital rendered it impossible for the tenantry to attempt any spirited improvements. Donaldson first points out the common management of that period, which he shows to have been very unproduc tive, and afterwards recommends what he thinks would ba a more profitable course. &quot;Of the dale ground,&quot; he says, &quot;that is, such lands as are partly hills and partly valleys, of which sorts may be comprehended the greatest part of arable ground in this kingdom, I shall suppose a fanner to have a lease or tack of three score acres, at three hundred merks of rent per annum (16, 13s. 4d. sterling). Perhaps some who are not acquainted with rural affairs may think this cheap ; but those who are the possessors thereof think otherwise, and find difficulty enough to get the same paid, according to their present svay of manuring thereof. But that I may proceed to the comparison, I shall show how commonly this farm-room is managed. It is com monly divided into two parts, viz., one-third croft, and two-thirds outfield, as it is termed. The croft is usually divided into three parts : to wit, one-third barley, which is always dunged that year barley is sown thereon ; another third oats ; and the last third peas. The outside field is divided into two parts, to wit, the one half oats, and the other half grass, two years successively. The product which may be supposed to be on each acre of croft, four bolls (three Winchester quarters), and that of the outfield, three (2J quarters) ; the quota is seven score bolls, which we shall also reckon at five pounds (8s. 4d.) per boll, cheap year and dear year one with another. This, in all, is worth 700 (58, 6s. 8d. sterling). &quot;Then let us see what profit he Can make of his cattle. Accord ing to the division of his lands there is 20 acres of grass, which cannot be expected to be very good, because it gets not leave to lie above two years, and therefore cannot be well swarded. How ever, usually, besides four horses, which are kept for ploughing the said land, ten or twelve nolt are also kept upon a farm-room of the above-mentioned bounds ; but, in respect of the badness of the grass, as said is, little profit is had of them. Perhaps two or three stone of butter is the most that can be made of the milk of his kine the whole summer, and not above two heffers brought up each year. As to what profit may be made by bringing up young horses, I shall say nothing, supposing he keeps his stock good, by those of his own upbringing. The whole product, then, of his cattle cannot be reckoned above fifty merks (2, 15s. 6d.) For, in respect his beasts are in a manner half-starved, they are generally small ; so that scarce may a heffer be sold at above twelve pounds (1 sterling). The whole product of his farm-room, therefore, exceeds not the value of 733 (61, Is. 8d. sterling), or thereabout. &quot; The labourers employed on this farm were two men and one woman, besides a herd in summer, and other servants in harvest. Donaldson then proceeds to point out a different mode of management, which he calculates to be more profit able ; but no notice is taken of either clover or turnips as crops to be raised in his new course, though they are incidentally noticed in other parts of the work. I also recommend potatoes as a very profitable root for husband men and others that have numerous families. And because there is a peculiar way of planting this root, not commonly known in this country, I shall here show what way it is ordinary planted or set. The ground must be dry ; and so much the better it is if it have a good soard of grass. The beds or rigga are made about eight foot broad, good store of dung being laid upon your ground ; horse or sheep dung is the proper manure for them. Throw each potatoe or and afterwards dig earth out of the furrows, and cover them all orer, about some three or four inches deep ; the furrows left between your riggs must bo about two foot broad, and little less will they be in depth before your potatoes De covered. You need not plant this root in your garden ; they are commonly set in the fields, and wildest of ground, for enriching of it.&quot; As to their consumption, they were sometimes &quot;boiled and broken, and stirred with butter and new milk ; also roasted, and eaten with butter ; ya, some make- bread of them, by mixing them with oat or barley meal ; others parboil them and bake with them apples, after the manner of tarts.&quot; There is a good deal in this little treatise about sheep, and other branches of husbandry ; and, if the writer was well informed, as in most instances he appears to have been, his account of prices, of wages, and generally of the practices of that period, is very interesting. The next work on the husbandry of Scotland is, The Belhavei Countryman s Rudiments, or an advice to the Farmers 1723. in East Lothian, how to labour and improve their grounds, said to have been written by Lord Belhaven about the time of the Union, and reprinted in 1723. In this we have a deplorable picture of the state of agriculture in what is now the most highly improved county in Scot land. His lordship begins with a very high encomium on his own performance. &quot; I dare be bold to say, there was never such a good easy method of husbandry as this, so succinct, extensive, and methodical in all its parts, published before.&quot; And he bespeaks the favour of those to whom he addresses himself, by adding, &quot;neither shall I affright you with hedging, ditching, marling, chalking, paring, and burning, draining, watering, and such like, which are all very good improvements indeed, and very agreeable with the soil and situation of East Lothian ; but I know ye cannot bear as yet a crowd of improvements, this being only intended to initiate you in the true method and principles of husbandry.&quot; The farm- rooms in East Lothian, as in other districts, were divided into infield and outfield. &quot;The infield (where wheat is sown) is generally divided by the tenant into four divisions or breaks, as they call them, viz, ono of wheat, ono of barley, one of pease, and one of oats, so that tho wheat is sowd after the pease, the barley after the wheat, and tho oats after the barley. The outfield land is ordinarily made use oi promiscuously for feeding of their cows, horse, sheep, and oxen; tis also dunged by their sheep who lay in earthen folds ; and some times, when they havo much of it, they fauch or fallow a part of it yearly.&quot; Under this management the produce seems to have been three times the seed ; and yet, says his lordship, &quot; if in East Lothian they did not leave a higher stubble than in other places of the kingdom, their grounds would be in a much worse condition than at present they are, though bad enough.&quot; &quot; A good crop of corn makes a good stubble, and a good stubble is the equalest mucking that is.&quot; Among the advantages of inclosures, he observes, &quot;you will gain much more labour from your servants, a great part of whose time was taken up in gathering thistles and other garbage for their horses to feed upon in their stables ; and thereby the great trampling and pulling up, and other destruction of the corns, while they are yet tender, will be prevented.&quot; Potatoes and turnips are recommended to ba sown in the yard (kitchen-garden). Clover does not seem to have been in use. Rents were paid in corn ; and, for the largest farm, which he thinks should employ no moro than two ploughs, the rent was about six chalders of victual &quot; when the ground is very good, and four in that which is not so good. But I am most fully convinced they should take long leases or tacks, that they may not be straitened with time in the improvement of their rooms ; and this is profitable both for master and tenant.&quot; Such was the state of the husbandry of Scotland in the Society early part of last century. The first attempts at improvement Improve cannot be traced farther back than 1723, when a number of land-holders formed themselves into a society, under the title of the Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture
 * att (for they were sometimes cut into setts) into a knot of dung,