Implements of the Farm. 39 



bushes in the naves of the wheels, and as no grease 

 was used the movement of the cart was apt to be ac- 

 companied by a noise more shrill than pleasant. 



But the state of the roads, or rather the absence of 

 " roads before they were made" did not favour wheeled 

 conveyances. Up to fully the date of " the Forty-five" 

 one or two carts in a parish would seem to have been 

 all that existed. Toward the close of the century they had 

 become much more abundant over the country, though, 

 as just indicated, the currach still held its place to a mo- 

 derate extent. The minister of New Deer (Old Stat. 

 Ac.) says "when the present incumbent was settled, in 

 1737, there was not a cart but his own in the parish ; 

 nor were there roads which could be travelled in many 

 places. Then, and for many years after, there was but 

 one carrier who went weekly to Aberdeen with a horse 

 and packets ; sometimes he even went with nothing 

 but a back creel, and brought what merchandise and 

 provision were at the time necessary. Now (1793), 

 there is sufficient employment for three or four carriers, 

 who go each with a cart and two horses." Similar 

 statements are made by various others. Two-wheeled 

 carts became common in most lowland districts during 

 the last quarter of the eighteenth century. 



Of the primitive character of the farm implements 

 generally, near the close of the eighteenth century, 

 an incidental illustration may be given from the pages 

 of a witness already cited. Dr. James Anderson, who 

 was a keen improver and reformer of old things gen- 

 erally, credits his patron, Mr. Udny of Udny, with a 

 useful invention in implements. That gentleman, who 

 filled the office of a commissioner of excise, was an 

 earnest agricultural improver. He was an early and 

 successful cultivator of the turnip, and his invention 

 was an improved sower cost eightpence to a shilling. 

 It was a perforated tin box with a wooden handle 

 neither more nor less than a " Bobbin' John," which 

 was carried along in the hand over the drill top and 



