Ten Year X of East Lotliian Farminr/. Ill 



plough, tlie further object seemed to be to render the surface as 

 impervious as possible to the influence of the atmosphere, and the 

 pattern of the whole work was apparently taken from the plough- 

 man's own corded breeches. All this is now changed ; and if 

 the earth is but sufficiently torn, tossed, tumbled about, and, if 

 possible, tunnelled into, it matters not how rough the work may 

 seem. 



Leases and Covenants. 



While agriculture is thus advancing with the times, it presents 

 one aspect in which little or no change has been effected for cen- 

 turies. Scotland boasts, and with reason, of its system of leases, 

 assuring, as they do, to the tenant, the possession of his i'arm for 

 19 or 21 years, and thus giving him time to reap the benefit of the 

 large outlay which is generally made during the first half of his 

 occupancy ; and there can be little doubt that, but for such leases, 

 it could never have emerged from its original barrenness. And 

 yet, if these leases are the boast of Scottish agriculture, they are 

 also its shame, betraying, by their lengthiness, their vexatious 

 enactments, their not unfrequent inapplicability to the lands 

 demised, and their general ignorance of agriculture, that they 

 originated in a lawyer's office. 



Their rigid prescription not only of the acreage to be assigned 

 to each crop, but of the amount of seed to be sown, without even 

 any allowance for the casual failure of a crop ; their imdue 

 restrictions on the sale of produce, besides annoyances chiefly 

 connected with the preservation of game, too often give them 

 the character of the fifteenth, rather than of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. 



How comes it, then, that such documents are tolerated by 

 a practical and not too sul^missive people ? Simply because they 

 are looked upon alike by landlord and tenant as a dead letter. 

 Still they are not altogether innoxious ; they are the skeleton in 

 the farmer's cupboard, and if he should be so unfortunate as to 

 give offence by asserting his rights in one direction, he may 

 always be hit in another by the enforcement of penalties incurred 

 under the lease. 



OtJier Chavf/es. 



Among the men connected with the soil of East Lothian, whether 

 as owners, occupiers, or labourers, many changes have taken 

 place since 1853. Death has removed, amongst others, those 

 excellent, considerate landlords, the Earl of lladtlington, and Mr. 

 Hope of Luffiiess ; the latter of whom, not long before his death, 

 gave strong proof of his fairness by ordering the; ground-game 

 which abcHinded on his estate to be reduced Avithin perfectly 



