THE 



FARMER'S MAGAZINE: 



MONDAY, 20. JANUARY 1800. 

 (NO- I.) ^ 



PART I. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



FOR THE farmer's MAGAZINE. 



^bfervatlons upon the additional Stat'ifUcal Account of the parijb 

 of HoUNAM, Roxburghffjtre. 



*' The whole body of perfons in a country, whofc abilities are applied to un- 

 *' fruitful employments, are exactly the fame as if they were not in being ; their 

 " negative exiflence is even a heavy burthen to the country, as every individual 

 " who only confuaies, requires a produdive individual, whole labour mufl infure 

 " the exiftcnce of the former. " Tooiit Vic-w of the Rujfian Empire. 



IT has been a principle affumed by a great number of the 

 Clergy, that large farms, or, in other words, that an accu- 

 mulation of farms, in the hand of one perfon, is unfavour- 

 able to population ; and this, exxept in a few inftances, they 

 have taken for granted, without offering a proof. In the 

 27ft: volume of the StatiRical Account of Scotland, p. loth, 

 fome Additional obfervations, by the Rev. Mr James Ruther- 

 ford^ are made to his former account of the parifli of Hou- 

 nam ; and wefelecfl the following paffages, p. i6. etfeq^. up- 

 on which we mean to make our remarks. 



" The great and mod obvious caufe of the dccreafe of the Inha- 

 bitants, within the laft thirty or forty years, is owing to the (per- 

 haps too general) pra£lice of letting the lands in great farms, and to 

 the mode of agriculture now almoft univerfally adop'i.ed, efpecially 

 'fince fheep and wool brought fo high a price, of laying down the 

 whole lands in grafs. The lands formerly, from 40 to 100 years 

 back, were parcelled out into four times, at leaft, the prefent num- 

 ber of farms : there was alfo much of thefe farms in tillage : and, 

 confequently, a greater number of people could be ir.r.intained, and 

 more hands would be neceffiiry for carrying on the labour of the 

 lands. So late as the year 1756, there were no fewer than {c'vea 

 tenants, with large ffciniiies, on the lands of Hounam, now ail rented 



vol.. I. NO. I. S by 



