372 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZLNE, 



PROFITABLE 



CULTURE OF THE 

 DISTRICTS. 



CEREALS IN HILLY 



At a meeting of the Galashiels Farmers' Club, 

 held on the first Tuesday in July 1858, Mr. Scott 

 sen., of Mossilee, introduced this subject in the 

 following terms : — In tlie hope of having this ques- 

 tion fully discussed in the club by members who 

 have more experience and are better able to do so 

 than I am, I shall oft'er a few remarks upon it. 

 On the Gala — in some other places in the south of 

 Scotland, but especially on the Gala — from its 

 source to the foot of it, improvement may be seen 

 climbing the hills to their summits. About ten or 

 fifteen years ago, various proprietors and farmers 

 began to open up their eyes so far as to see (and 

 jjcrmit me to say, sir, that this was a most im- 

 portant discovery) that there were various tracts 

 of fine lowland that it would be advisable to bring 

 into cultivation. It is needless to waste a single 

 word on the profitable result of that, in hearing of 

 the members of this club. But it is only within 

 the last very few years that what I may call 

 another discovery has been made by some far- 

 mers, that it is advisable — and, for my part, I 

 hesitate not to say profitable — that at whatever 

 altitude on our highest hills where the plough can 

 be made to enter, and lime can be taken up, to re- 

 move the old comparatively useless sward of bent 

 and heather, and introduce white clover and sown 

 grasses in its place. And I think I may safely 

 say — and I say so from my own experience — that, 

 as a general rule, with some little exceptions, 

 the improvement and comparative profit will be 

 highest where the jirevious wild herbage was of 

 least value. In so far as cereals are concerned, 

 they may be profitably cultivated, if the soil is 

 suitable, from 800 to 1000 feet above the sea level 

 in this comparatively dry district. The highest 

 part of the new improved land of Mossilee is about 

 900 feet above the sea. Hitherto it has been quite 

 safe in regard to ripening. I would not recom- 

 mend, with a view to profit, the cereals to be cul- 

 tivated in the vicinity of damp moorlands, and in 

 a damp atmosphere, at more than 700, or 800 feet 

 at most ; but in a dry atmosphere it may be ex- 

 tended to a 1000, especially if the exposure is 

 favourable. Higher than that, I would rather pre- 

 fer sowing out without a crop. The pasture will 

 generally do more than pay for the grass seeds the 

 first year, and it will be better in pasture. You 

 will have the acre of waste land, worth, it may be, 

 less than '2s. 6d. up to 7s. Gd., increased up to 



from 10s. to 20s. The question is not whether, a 

 the high altitude of 1000 to 1500 feet, we can ex- 

 tend the cereals, but whether, from producing 

 lambs of the value of from 6s. to 10s., we may 

 not be able to increase the value up to from 15s. 

 to 18s., and the fleece in proportion of 4 to G. If 

 I may be permitted to take a glance at the past 

 state of matters, I would say that perhaps nowhere 

 has there been more advancement made than in 

 this district. Take the parish of Galashiels for 

 instance. "When Mr. Douglas wrote the Statistical 

 Account of Scotland, near the end of last century, 

 he put down the whole tillage land in the parish 

 at 1200 acres — 900 acres of it in oats, the remain- 

 ing 300 in barley, peas, clover, potatoes, and tur- 

 nips : only 300 for these five diflerent sorts. The 

 harvest was late, beginning in September, and 

 frequently concluding in November. The number 

 of ploughs in the parish, 37. Again in 1833, when 

 Dr. Pateison wrote the Nev/ Statistical Account, 

 some forty years after, the arable land had rather 

 more than doubled. The Doctor put it down then 

 at 3000 acres. But the curious thing is the next 

 entry, opposite which stands a cipher. It is to the 

 eflfect that there is not another acre in the parish 

 that will pay for cultivation. Who could have 

 expected that from the author of the Manse Gar- 

 den F But I do not think it would be fair to let 

 the onus of this rest altogether on the head of the 

 Doctor, for we are not to fancy that he would not 

 ask the opinion of all the enterprising farmers in 

 the parish on the subject. That was written some 

 four or five years before I came to Mossilee. In 

 spite of this most sagacious opinion a good many 

 extra acres have been cultivated since then, and I 

 suspect in most cases not unprofitably. At that 

 date there might still be seen hundreds of boulders 

 which had formed the landmarks, and the heather 

 and coarse herbage which gave colour to the land- 

 scape long before the Scottish kings hunted in 

 Ettrick Forest, which have now vanished, and given 

 place to fine crops of corn and turnips, and to as 

 fine pasture as needs be. I may just further 

 mention, in regard to Galashiels parish, that Mr. 

 Hooper Dawson, of Kelso, when he pubhshed his 

 Statistical xVccount of Scotland, in 1853, put down 

 the arable land in this parish at 3300 acres, being 

 only an advance of 300 acres in 20 years. How- 

 ever, I think we may take it for granted that this 

 is rather below the mark at that date ; but we must 



