286 REPORT ON THE AGRICULTURE OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 



have them all made large. In districts where there is a regular 

 gradation in the size of the farms, a strong inducement is held 

 out for men in every grade to be industrious and careful in their 

 management, so that they may improve their position and their 

 prospects, by becoming lessees of more extensive and more valu- 

 able holdings. Nor is this mere theory, for this motive is found 

 to be in practice very influential. Many men, who long acted 

 in the capacity of ordinary farm servants, have by their industry 

 and thrift managed to save sufficient capital to warrant them in 

 becoming offerers for farms of comparatively small extent, while 

 their intelligence, general good conduct, and practical skill have 

 recommended them to the favourable notice of landlords and 

 factors, who are generally not slow to recognise merit, and to 

 encourage such as show a disposition to help themselves. In proof 

 of this, the reporter would cite one case out of many within his 

 own knowledge. A farm of one plough in Upper Annandale be- 

 came " open" a few years ago. Of the thirteen offerers, there were 

 nine who had "risen from the ranks f and he has the authority of 

 the agent for saying, that though there were of course differences 

 in their qualifications, " pecuniary and personal," yet not one of 

 them could be objected to on any reasonable ground. Others, 

 again, who commenced life in comparatively small farms, have 

 by the same qualities succeeded in increasing their capital and 

 the extent of land in their possession. And we maintain that 

 the gradation in the size of the farms in Dumfriesshire not only 

 renders this practicable, without the parties having to remove 

 from the same district of the countiy, but that it also acts as a 

 strong inducement for such men to strive to improve their cir- 

 cumstances, and to endeavour to raise themselves in the social 

 scale. We trust, therefore, that such a gradation as at present 

 prevails may long be continued, for we believe it to be produc- 

 tive of the most beneficial results. There are comparatively few 

 arable farms in the county on which the tenants do not reside, 

 landlords being averse — very properly, we think — to letting led 

 farms. 



There is a class of holdings of small extent existing on the 

 estate of Mr Hope Johnstone of Annandale, in the parishes of 

 Johnstone and Kirkpatrick-Juxta, which ought not to be passed 

 over in such a report as the present. A very full account of this 

 system appeared in the Transactions of the " Highland and Agri- 

 cultural Society" for March 1844 and for July 1859, and there- 

 fore we do not think it necessary to describe it now, all the more 

 so that justice could not be done to it in the limits now at our 

 disposal. 



2. Length of Leases. — At the commencement of the period over 

 which the report extends, the leases of most arable farms in 

 1) umf riesshire extended over a period of nineteen years. Fifteen 



