i8o4* Retrospective V-u"iu of Agriculture'— Tlvcedatf, J^ 



having little prospect of getting clean handed by sale, unler/S 

 by demand for the store sheep, if the winter proves severe, 

 or by the emigration of your Lothian cattle as boarders, 

 when an enemy shall appear upon your coasts. 



Mr Findlater, our county reporter, has observed, In his sur- 

 vey, * That improved husbandry, from its superior produce,, 



* enables liigher rents to be offered ; and that higher rents thus 



* necessarily given, enforce the adoption of improved husband- 



* I'Yy without whose superior prc)dai:e they could not be paid.' 

 We have, of late, experienced a little of the truth of this max- 

 im ; very high rents, indeed, (to very near the#ripling of the 

 former) have lately been given for Tweedale sheep farms, up- 

 on the speculation of the superior product to be raised from 

 the fine vvooled cheviot, compared with the accustomed coarse 

 vvooled, black faced, horned breed of sheep ; this will certain- 

 ly enforce tlie adoption qi the same .^peculation, as the former 

 mode of practice udll not yield produce to answer the rent : I 

 say, speculation, as the price of the line wooled has not yef, 

 come^ to its level ; nor will it, till the rage of speculation for 

 this mode of stocking shall have been satisfied, by full plenish- 

 ing among such as are now in quest of them, and are willing to- 

 give for them, ^ preiiiwi ajfectio?iis^ 



The SwedisL turnip is more and move in request among far-- 

 mers, particularly in Newlands parish, where they have been 

 pretty much extended within three or four years ; in some pa- 

 rishes they are not yet known : They will never be depended 

 upon for the chief part of the crop,, and will only be sown in 

 general practice, to the extent of corps de reserve for spring ; 

 for they grow not seemingly to the same weight of crop ; they 

 require also earlier sowing ;. consequently, like potatoes, con- 

 stitute a crop less favourable to thorough cleaning of the land f 

 they require, besides, land more rich by nature and by art. 



The winter storing of turnips of the common kind, is be- 

 coming yearly more prevalent ; piled up in long narrow ridges, 

 on the surface, peitiups 8 feet wide at base, and contracted like 

 a wedge, and thatched to the ground wdth divot, straw^, or rash- 

 es. This mode of improvement came to us from the west, a 

 few years ago : even if the bulbs only arc preserved, and the 

 shaws lost, ic is a great saving, as in two years out of three^ 

 all our turnips upon the ground at Christmas, are entirely lost 

 by the frost. Turnips stored as above by Hallow-day, are per- 

 fectly good at April. The shaws immediately ploughed in, are 

 found considerably nourishing. 



A gentleman farmer in Tweedale (who unites the assidui- 

 ty of the Practical Farmer, to tlie superior information of the 

 xuaxi of letters, to the discharge of the public duty of a resi- 

 dent 



