CHAPTEE XIV. 



EARLY AGRICULTURAL IMPROVERS SIR ARCHIBALD 

 GRANT OF MONYMUSK IMPROVERS IN THE MEARNS 

 BARCLAY OF URY. 



ALTHOUGH the Society of Improvers in the Know- 

 ledge of Agriculture had, as already stated, been formed 

 in 1723, and individuals among the proprietary class 

 had soon after that date made creditable efforts to- 

 wards improvement in farming, it was not till fully 

 the middle of the century that any movement of much 

 consequence took place in that direction in any of the 

 north-eastern counties of Scotland ; nor, indeed, over 

 a wider area. From the Union downward, to 1745, 

 Scotland "experienced a state of extraordinary langour 

 and debility. Her trade was inconsiderable, her agri- 

 culture in the most wretched state of neglect, and her 

 manufactures nothing. Her people were oppressed, 

 abject, and dispirited ; her nobles poor, proud, and 

 haughty, even to a proverb, and there seemed to be 

 no hope of ever seeing a spirit of active industry 

 excited in this nation." Dr. Anderson, whose words 

 these are, seems to think that the abolition of heritable 

 jurisdictions, after the date of the last Rebellion, re- 

 moved the main obstacle to improvement. 



The first experiment in Scotland in cultivating pota- 

 toes in the field was made at Kilsyth, in 1739. An 

 entire half acre was planted, and many persons came 

 from great distances to see the extraordinary novelty. 

 But it was not till about 1760 that the potato was ge- 

 nerally cultivated, even in gardens ; and, for twenty 



