4 THE EASTERN BORDERS. 



Smailholm, and Makerston, are together about equal to Ber- 

 wickshire ; and the proportion of pastoral and waste to cultivated 

 ground is apparently nearly the same. In 1794 Mr. Lowe esti- 

 mated the acres under plantation in Berwickshire at about 3500. 

 There are now probably not less than 10,000 in the entire 

 district. 



The soil is vai-ious and of every quality ; and often so mixed 

 as to make it impossible to distinguish the kinds by any very 

 distinctive name ; or, when purer, to mai'k out their extent and 

 limits, for these are not bounded strictly by geological formations, 

 nor dependent on the rocks underneath for their character. 

 South of the Tweed, " a strong fertile clayey loam occupies the 

 level tract of country along the coast, and reaches as far up in 

 general as the great post-road. It is well adapted to the culture 

 of wheat, pulse, clover, and grazing.""^ Sandy, gravelly, and dry 

 loam, or a turnip-soil, is found along Tweedside, in the western 

 parts especially ; and extensively in the vales of the Till and 

 Bowmont. " The hills surrounding the Cheviot mountains are 

 mostly a dry, sharp-pointed, gravelly loam.^' Moist loams, on 

 a wet cold clayey bottom, are found throughout, but their nature 

 is yearly ameliorated by the labour of man, and made tractable to 

 every pui-pose of the agriculturist. Black peat-earth is the pre- 

 vailing soil in the hilly region, and occurs also in many places 

 scattered through the lower district, — marking the position of 

 former morasses and lakes*. 



Of the soils in Berwickshire the Rev. John Edgar writes : — 

 " A great variety of soils exist in the county ; some districts 

 being remai'kable for a stiff and stubborn clay, others for a mix- 

 ture of clay and loam ; a rich loamy soil characterizing one part 

 of the county, while another is distinguished for a mixture of 

 sand, gravel, and loam in various proportions ; and on the same 

 soil all these diversities are sometimes amalgamated. When it 

 is considered that, not unfrequently on the same farm, all these 

 varieties occur, and sometimes even on the same field ; and that 

 all these kinds of soil are modified by the character of the sub- 

 soil, which also exists in as great diversity, — to classify the va- 

 rieties of the soil, or to ascertain with any degree of accuracy the 

 extent to which these endless peculiarities prevail, would be 

 almost if not altogether impossible. It may, in general terms, 

 be observed that clay forms the discriminating character of the 

 lands in the 'How of the Merse'; loam that part of the soil 

 which skirts the chief rivers ; while turnip-soil is found in those 

 parts of the Merse where there is not too great a preponderance 



* Bailey and Cully : View of the Agriculture of Northumberland, p. 4-6. 

 8vo, 1813. 



