An Agricultural Tour. 121 



such a number, " is, not that they are absolutely ne- 

 cessary for so deep a furrow, but that they relieve one 

 another, by taking up the draught by turns." The 

 Surveyor ridicules this idea, and avers that, but for 

 the prepossession of custom, Mr. Paton would not be 

 capable of reasoning that way. " To leave oxen to 

 pull or not, according to their own discretion, would 

 be a very imperfect way of relieving one another. I 

 have often seen ten oxen in a plough, in the counties 

 of Aberdeen and Banff ; but I never once saw them 

 pulling all together. One or other of them are seen 

 hanging on the yoke, keeping back the draught in- 

 stead of advancing it." The improvements carried on 

 at Udny, by Mr. Udny, attract prominent notice. The 

 land around Udny House had originally been even 

 rougher than that round the town of Aberdeen ; yet 

 now, at great expense, and " with unremitting per- 

 severance," it was so improved, that no vestige re- 

 mained of what it had originally been ; nothing was 

 to be seen but neat enclosures, thriving hedges, and 

 commodious offices ; presenting such a picture as made 

 the traveller loath to prosecute his further journey 

 over the many barren, out-lying acres. A favourable 

 rotation of cropping had been established ; Mr. Udny 

 was " famous for a breed of horses, full blood, on both 

 sides." Mr. Wight admired his " English bull, Short- 

 horn," and declared his cows, some of which were from 

 England, some from Berwickshire, and some the very 

 best of his own country breed, to be good. 



At this point the Surveyor was destined to en- 

 counter a keen disappointment. It was common for 

 spirited improvers of the landlord class and the 

 improvers of the time were generally of that class 

 to bring men from the Lothians as overseers or chief 

 ploughmen ; and they not unfrequently helped them 

 to settle ultimately in farms of their own. Mr. Udny 

 went a step farther. In his zeal for agricultural im- 

 provement he had prevailed upon Mr. James Anderson, 



