THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



373 



take into account that the landward part of Gala- 

 shiels parish is of small extent, amounting to 9S-">0 

 acres, showing, by last account, just about a third 

 of it cultivated. In the parish of Stow, there are 

 about 40,000 acres. When Sir John Sinclair's 

 statistics were published, the arable land was put 

 down at 3700 acres, 90 cattle fed, and 120 sheep 

 annually out of better than 21,000 then in the pa- 

 rish, while none of the farms had more than three 

 or four acres of turnips. When Mr. Waddell 

 wrote the New Statistical Account in 1843 — at 

 least, revised and published then — the arable land 

 had increased to 11,345 acres. This is rather more 

 than a fourth ; and I have no doubt but that, by 

 this time, it is likewise approaching a third, if it is 

 not beyond it. The members from that extensive 

 parish will be better able to give an opinion than I 

 am. He gives the cattle fed at 500, which is very 

 respectable ; but the sheep have come down to 

 19,820. This decrease arose from the fact that 

 many of the farms had been overstocked before. 

 Unfortunately, Mr. Dawson has not taken the 

 trouble to get the statistics of these matters in 1853 

 in the parish of Stow. It is needless to say that 

 all classes of the community are interested in this 

 question. I would say the commercial class 

 first, the landlords next, and the tenants last — 

 (Hear) — because on the tenants generally comes 

 the onerous task of carrying out these improve- 

 ments ; for, how liberal soever the landlord may be, 

 this always involves considerable outlay, and then 

 he has seldom more than eight or ten years, in a 

 nineteen years' lease, in which he can expect to be 

 repaid, while to the other classes the improvement 

 is perm.anent. The bales of wool are the raw ma- 

 terial, which, passing through the manufacturing 

 process in the mills, and coming out in fine tweeds 

 and shawls, gives to Galashiels its importance. So 

 the waste land, for an equally important and profit- 

 able purpose, is just the raw material ; and it is 

 still stored up in thousands and thousands of acres 

 on the hillsides and vales drained by the Tweed 

 and its tributaries, and that at altitudes which, till 

 late, it has never been doubted would always be- 

 long exclusively to the moorfowl and the black- 

 faced sheep. 



Mr. A. Thomson, merchant, said he thought 

 Mr. Scott had confined himself to rather narrow 

 limits. Unless a regular series of crops was taken, 

 they could not come to a satisfactory judgment. It 

 might pay to open up a place here and there, but 

 the question ought to be taken on a large scale. A 

 good deal, he believed, depended upon the situation 

 and exposure of the hill. For instance, Buckholm 

 Hill, which had a northern exposure, if cultivated, 

 would not return so well as Meigle, which lies to 

 the sun, and is well sheltered. The northern ex- 



posure might raise a good crop of straw, but not 

 of corn. No land could be said to be cultivated 

 without the application of manures, especially farm- 

 yard manure, and it was easier in some places than 

 others to get up manures. Some places were al- 

 most inaccessible. Middleton Moor, he instanced, 

 which was well cultivated now, and yielded good 

 crops, he should say was about the same height as 

 Meigle Ilill, and there the heights were cultivated 

 j)rofitably, because they were easy of access. 



Mr. Geo. Dun, Laidlawstiel, generally agreed 

 with Mr. Thomson. He thought no imiversal rule 

 could be laid down. Every farmer ought to be left, 

 as circumstances dictated, to pursue his own judg- 

 ment. 



Mr. HoBKiRK, Langlee, said he certainly ex- 

 pected, in the discussion, to have got a leaf out of 

 the experiences of those farmers present who had 

 been engaged in breaking-in high land to a large 

 extent. Instead of this, the question had been 

 passed over almost in silence, He could not un- 

 derstand how, in a club of this kind, members who 

 ought to know something of the question, should 

 be so stinted of their information. Many of them 

 had done a good deal in hill cultivation, and they 

 ought to be able to say whether their experiments 

 had been profitable or not. It was rather heartless 

 to sit and witness such indifference. For his own 

 part, he could not add anything to the stock of 

 information, having no experience in high cul- 

 tivation. 



Mr. J. Smail said, he was surprised to hear 

 Mr. Scott affixing such low limits to profitable cul- 

 tivation. Caddon Head was 2,000 feet (?) above 

 the level of the sea, and yet, to his certain know- 

 ledge, it had topped the Galashiels market several 

 times. He believed Mr. Scott to be a man of ex- 

 perience, and that he would not cultivate high 

 ground if it were not profitable. 



Mr, Smith, Sunderland, had not yet had time 

 to sum up the results, but had commenced high 

 ploughing, and would by-and-bye be able to give 

 the statistics. He agreed generally with Mr. Scott. 



Mr. Brydon, Netherbans, had always found it 

 profitable to cultivate at whatever height. 



After Mr. Scott had replied and summed up, 

 he read and moved the following resolution — 

 " That as a general rule, it is profitable to cultivate 

 cereal crops at an altitude of 1000 feet above the 

 level of the sea, provided the situation and exposure 

 be favourable; but if not, an altitude of SOO feet 

 is the extreme limits. That in the counties of Rox- 

 burgh and Selkirk, there is no land at such an 

 elevation as to render it incapable of profitable 

 cultivation." 



The motion was seconded by Mr. Wm. Hal- 

 DANE, brewer. 



