230 Agricultural InteU'igence — Scotland. May 



tron ; and I fuppofe would have been {lill higher, had not the demand 

 been Icfs than ufual, \v]:ich, I am informed, lias been fully a third be- 

 low what it has been for two years pall. Little of the proHts of this 

 high price, however, I believe, has reached the pockets of the feeder j 

 it mull therefore have gone to the breeder or the butcher. 



* In my lafl letter, when noticing the rate of wages in this neigh- 

 bourhood, I omitted to ilatc tliat of farm fervants, which with us, I 

 imagine, is higher than in moll places in Scotlarid. Eight guinea;? in 

 the half year is the moil general wage now given here to a plough- 

 man ; fome principal hands ten guineas, witli bed, board, and wailiing. 

 If the fei-vant is a married man, or does not live in the hpufe, he is 

 allowed, as board wages, two pecks of oat-meal, with a lliilhng (for 

 what they cair kitchen) per week. He has his coals driven, and often 

 a little ground is allowed him for a few potatoes. Upon the whole, 

 therefore, a ploughman cannot be edimated under thiity pounds /rr 

 iAiuium. 



* I noticed in my lafl: letter.the property adl, particularly in its ap- 

 })licatiun to the tenantry, and can now alfure you, from the beft au- 

 thority, that the opinion I then gave, with fome doubt, ref})eCting 

 the deduction of one eighth, as therein itated, was perfettly correct, 

 Tlie abfolute injullicc of afTuming a tenant's rent as the criterion by 

 which to,, judge of his income or profits, and his confequent ability to 

 ]'ay the tax, one would think, could only require to be mentioned, in 

 order to have it amended ; not to point out the glaring paitiahty of 

 ])lacing this clafs on a different footing from every other in the com- 

 munity in regard to this tax. As it will no doubt undergo a revifion 

 this Seffion, we may liope to fee it amended in this particular, as welj 

 as in many others. 



* The importance of the tenure by leafe to the interefls of agricul- 

 ture, has been fo ably difcufled i;i many of \our pages, tliat the lubjecl 

 fcems in a m.anner exluuilted, as fai*, at lea ft, as reafoning can well go j 

 but as, with fomQ people, a lingle fact will go farther tou-ards cojivic- 

 tion than a thoufand arguments, I fend you the following, wh.ich has 

 occurred in our neighbourhood, as it may ferve as a warning to others 

 not to * go and do hkewife. ' The valuable barony of Kinniel, much 

 oi it fine carfe foil, belonging to tlie Duke of Hamilton, is parcelled 

 out into fmall farms, and occupied by a numerous tenantiy, who con- 

 ceived themiielves fecured in a nineteen year's leafe of their pofTiil'- 

 iions, of which fix or feven years are yet generally to run. On en- 

 tering to their farms, inltead of getting a regular document, or prc)- 

 ])erly extended leafe, they received only fome fort of letter froin the 

 factor of the late Duke ; under which, however, as they had fat quiet- 

 ly ten or twelve years, they naturally concluded that they would con- 

 tinue undillurbed to the end of the nineteen. All at once, how- 

 « ver, tliey have been made to underilaiid, that this letti'r or promile 

 iTor I believe it is not precifely of the fame nature with them all), will 



-• of no vahdily in cur courts of law, and that they nuiil ex2-)ecl a 



