30 Notes and Sketches. 



in bestowing their labour without any prospect of an 

 adequate return, and condemn the inhuman practice 

 of others for wounding so unmercifully the sides of 

 our common mother earth, without ever offering any 

 medicine. There is no excuse can be made to 

 alleviate the severity of this censure, except it be the 

 prevailing humour of landlords in exacting what they 

 possibly can of their dependants, and they, as the 

 phrase is, must put at the rigs. However, it were 

 a far more equal way for masters to allow their fellow- 

 creatures a reasonable subsistence, their lands, in the 

 meantime being improven, as well as greater justice 

 done to their own children, to succeed to a thriving 

 tenantry and well-managed ground. This would be a 

 sure way to raise a more plentiful fortune, and 

 transmit their memory with more honour to posterity, 

 than the heaping up a store of money by those means 

 that have such an affinity to extortion, and seldom 

 enrich the third heir." 



One fancies that in these latter sentiments he hears 

 the voice of some nineteenth century radical, rather 

 than that of the aristocratic members of the small 

 society of Buchan farmers of a hundred and forty 

 years ago. 



We take a step onward and listen to the advice 

 obtained in a particular case by an ardent improver. 

 About the year 1757, Sir Archibald Grant had ad- 

 dressed a set of queries to the hon. the " Society of 

 Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scot- 

 land," concerning the most advantageous way of 

 managing a field of sixteen acres, said to be " of good 

 black soil," " abundantly dry, or can easily be made 

 so." It had produced clover and ryegrass for three 

 years, but could not be longer pastured. The advice 

 Sir Archibald receives for the treatment of the field 

 and it is- given in the month of January is to plough 

 with all convenient speed, " that it may have got 

 three furs betwixt and the latter end of April or 



