186 REPORT ON THE AGKICULTUKE OF PERTHSHIRE. 



tain itself in fair order, but if the illegitimate exports of hay and 

 potatoes are made, its condition can only be maintained by 

 heavy applications of foreign manure — that is to say, manure not 

 made on the farm ; and as this manure must be solid stable or 

 byre manure brought from the towns, where, of course, the straw 

 that makes it is not grown, the country at large is only having 

 returned to it the material it has yielded, and, as already said, 

 the lowest estimate of this is at the rate of L.l per acre per 

 annum. These remarks will explain what is meant by low 

 farming, and also what is meant by fair farming, and the alter- 

 native forms of the latter, neither of which, however, are in the 

 least degree entitled to be called high farming. When high 

 farming is spoken of (and there is none of it in Perthshire), it is 

 something in excess of either of the two last. If, in the one case, 

 instead of selling all the grain, except what is required for the 

 horses, a farmer bruises it and feeds his cattle and pigs with a 

 large proportion of it, selling only the best, and if he feeds his 

 stock with oilcake or other bought in material, such as corn and 

 straw bought at roups, and feeds with them to help his own 

 manure heap, also gives his turnips guano and bones besides, 

 while he eats his grass with sheep, or soils it with his cattle in 

 the courts, that system is worthy of the name of high farming ; 

 or if, on the other hand, the man who sells off everything, buys 

 back manure, partly dung, and partly bones or other light stuffs, 

 to the value of L.2 or L.3 per acre for every acre of the farm, in 

 place of the L.l, which is the lowest estimate of what is neces- 

 sary, he in like manner may be said to farm highly. And if the 

 question is put, Which is the best, and which is the worst plan 

 for a tenant to follow ? it may safely be said that there can be no 

 surer road to ruin than low farming, though it is one that many 

 a poor Carse farmer has travelled, without apparently convincing 

 that portion of his neighbours whose position is nearest his 

 own, that they are treading hard on his footsteps, and must 

 shortly come to the same end as he. To follow successfully 

 either of the systems of high farming requires a degree of 

 experience, ability, and skill in principles and detail, that is not 

 possessed by all or many who are professional farmers ; and it 

 may be better for a man to follow one of the middle courses 

 specified as fair farming, until he finds himself possessed of these 

 requisites of character, and the not less important requisite of 

 cash, which will justify him in adventuring upon the advanced 

 and higher scale of farming now indicated. 



There is one point with regard to potato growing, as to which 

 many farmers have been greatly to blame, and lost sight of their 

 own interest. Ever since 1846 the disease has more or less pre- 

 vailed, and often when the crop was large. The diseased potatoes 

 are worth about 7s. per boll or 28s. per ton for feeding cattle, but 



