1803. Agricultural Intelligence. 233 



Fat cattle and fheep maintain their former prices ; and hitlierto 

 little tendency to fall hath been difcovered. Great ewes, or ewes 

 with lamb, have brouglit about \o\, per cent, more than lafl year. 

 Indeed tlie advance upon live (Igck is, in every refpeft, only fa- 

 vourable to the breeder ; for the feeders have rarely reaped more 

 than ordinary profits. 



April 23. . N, 



Extracts from Private Corrf.spondence, 

 SCOTLAND. 



Let!er fro7n a Genthman In Bernx}'iclfinrey March iCjlh. 



* So fine a feed time as vi^e have had in this eaflern corner, has, I be- 

 lieve, been feldom re rnembered. Not an hour but the harrows could go 

 with eafe and effcdl, except two frofty mornings ; and even then, all 

 was well at \ i o'clock. Every body hereabout fcems to have fini(h- 

 ed beans and oats; and all are bufily employed preparing for hailing 

 peas and barley, and croffing their potato and turnip land. 



' It has often been confidered as advantageous to hire horfes for 

 plough work ; but, from fom.e things which have lately come under my 

 obfervation, 1 am fatisfied that a very great lofs would be fuflained, were 

 fuch a cuftom generally adopted. The firft requifite for cleaning land 

 foul vi'ith root- weeds, is to get the plough to the bottom of the vege- 

 table mould, fo as to reverfe every root ; but this cannot be got whea 

 the work is executed by hired horfes. Such are ufually unable to turn 

 the foil to a fufHcient depth, or their ov/ner has a ftronger defire to ret 

 over the ground for his own intereft, than to attend to the orders of his 

 employer. The price paid per acre, when ploughing is executed by 

 contract, has led aftray many writers on rural ceconomy ; for if the work 

 is fufiiciently performed, the charge is perhaps nearly double the fum 

 ufually eftimated ; and the caufe is obvious. 



* Could John Bull do a few things, i. Commute tithes; 1. Grant 

 leafes on improvement ; 3. Regulate the poor on rational principles ; 

 4. Commute ftatute labour ; 5. Divide commons ; — John would treble 

 his land rents in twenty-five years, increafe his population to a vaft ex- 

 tent, and, of confequence, Immenfely extend his manufaftures. AH 

 thefe things are, in my humble opinion, infinitely better ordered ia 

 Scotland than in England. 



< Grafs parks, fo far as they are hitherto let in Beiwickihire, are, 

 generally fpeaking, lower than laft year, probably owing to the fcarcity 

 and dearncfs of flock, and the fmaller produdlion of caih from the barn- 

 yards, lefTening both the powers and fpeculative fpirits of our farmers. ' 



Selkirk/hire 



