l8o4. Confideratmi m Regulating the Value of Labour. 261 



to your notice, the hint he throws out refpe£llnp the conftruc- 

 tion of a regular table of prices in the difi'erent puriOies, diftriiSls, 

 or counties of Scotland, to be -ommunicated by monthly or 

 quarterly reports. Regular reports of this kind, including not 

 only the price of labour in all its varif.ries — of meal, meat, and 

 bread, as he propofes ; but alfo of all grain, grafs, hay, Itraw, 

 eggs, milk, butter, cheefe, and provifions and produce of all 

 forts, — would give us more real infight into the fituation of the 

 country, more accurate knowledge of our national refources, 

 and more perfe£l: teds of the riches or poverty, the happinefs or 

 mifery of the different inhabitants of this illand, than any mode 

 of invefligation which has hitherto been adopted* It would, 

 above all, tend to explain the caufes, ami remedy the effed^s of 

 thofe inequalities of value which cxiil in different counties of 

 the fame kingdom ; enabling us to trace to more natural and 

 probable circumftances than the combination of workmen, the 

 high price of labour in different parts; and would, more effec- 

 tually perhaps than any arguments I can ufe, convince your 

 correfpondent of the groundlefs nature of thofe apprehenlions 

 which, he confeffes, caft a gloom upon his mind, in contem- 

 pladng the magnificent profpeft of the Caledonian Canal. 



* Sic nos in luce iimemus 



Inierdum nihilo qua funt inetuenda magis quam 

 ^i<£ puei'i in tcnebris pavitant^ fiuguntque future. ' 



I Iiad intended to enter into fome difcuffion upon this proje£led 

 work, refpe(£ling its probable influence in meliorating the condi- 

 tion of the Highlands; but having already trefpaffed fo long on 

 your patience in this letter, I may perhaps make it the fubjed: of 

 -^ feparate communication. 



Ayrfiircy 1804. Pol-QEconomicus. 



TO THE CONDUCTOR OF THE FARMER S MAGAZINE. 



Curfory Ohfervations on Farm Management in the DijlriEi betwixt 

 the River Txne in Northumberland and the Frith of Forth. 



For a confiderable number of years, I was engaged, under my 

 father, in the practice of agriculture, on a pretty extenfive fcale ; 

 and, though 1 have for fome time been concerned in bufinefs of 

 a different nature, early habit had made fo deep an impreffion, 

 that I have always been particularly attached to rural life, and 

 have never ceafed to direcft a part of my attention to agricultural 



affairs. 



