COUNTIES OF EDINBURGH AND LIXLITHGOW. 7 



lingers in many of the remote districts of Scotland. In Linlith- 

 gow matters were even worse, for, after the peaceful reign of 

 Alexander III., the country was plunged into ruin by foreign 

 invasions and domestic strifes during a period of about seventy 

 years, when the strong oppressed the weak, and the hardly- won 

 earnings of the industrious too often fell to the lot of cruel and 

 oppressive invaders. 



The year 1723 maybe regarded as a fresh starting-point in the 

 history of agriculture, when a society was formed in Edinburgh 

 for the purpose of issuing instructions, illustrated by example, on 

 the most practical and profitable methods of land culture. This 

 was called the Society of Improvers, and from the date of its 

 establishment cultivation in both Edinburgh and Linlithgow be- 

 gan to advance with rajjid strides. Two years later, a sale of 

 manure at Cuffabouts, near Bo'ness, by one Higgins, realised Is. 

 per bushel — thus affording an indication that the teachings of 

 the society were doing good service. Enterprising farmers now 

 began to spring up on all sides. Sir James Macgill, and, seventy 

 years later, Sir John Dick of Prestonfield, carted much manure 

 from Edinbursjh, and soon converted the worn-out and barren 

 soils under their management into fertile fields. 



In the year 1728, John, Earl of Stair, introduced much that 

 was new on his farm in the parish of Kirkliston, in West Lothian. 

 He began to practise the horse-hoeing system of husbandry, and 

 commenced to crop the land in rotation. A few years previous, 

 Lord Haddington had brought clover and sown grasses into the 

 adjoining county : these the Earl of Stair took advantage of, 

 and began to grow upon his own farm. He also brought into 

 field culture turnips, carrots, and cabbages, which had previously 

 been confined to gardens. How far his turnip-culture extended 

 we have no means of ascertaining, but since his time, there have 

 been many claimants for the honour of being the first to cultivate 

 field-turnips on a large scale. Tliis enterprising earl had a noble 

 imitator in Charles, the first Earl of Hopetoun, who even excelled 

 the illustrious earl in farm management, but they both died in 

 the year 1740, before they had seen their plans fully matured or 

 their efforts appreciated. 



The institution of a Farmer's Club in Ormiston, East Lothian, by 

 Mr Cockburn, the celebrated agriculturist, about this time also 

 gave a marked impetus to husbandry, as members began to 

 exchange and extend their ideas, so that not only themselves but 

 the whole community in the immediate district were benefited. 

 In Mid-Lotliiau the good work once begun was not allowed to 

 slumber, and soon after the middle of the 18th century land was 

 limed, fences built, grasses and succulents introduced, and im- 

 proved implements brought to bear upon the working of the soil. 

 Sir John Dairy niple of Cousland, the Duke of Ijuccleuch, and 



