THE AGRIcrLTl'RK OF THE PAST. 337 



ground ; some layland he noticed, which was manured with sea-weed 

 barley and oats he saw, but little wheat and rye ; and of the condition of 

 the peasantry, and of their industrious habits, he seemed to have formed 

 a low opinion. 



Although the condition of agriculture in Scotland, in early times, was 

 very depressed, judging from some enactments of the parliament of Alex- 

 ander II., still some idea of correct cultivation of the soil must have been 

 prevalent, from the enactment of a severe law against those who allowed 

 a p> - weed to grow in their fields. In the fifteenth and sixteenth 



centuries, oats and barley were the principal crops grown, although wheat 

 seems to have been cultivated as early as the thirteenth century. One 

 authority states that at this period " the peasants neither enclosed nor 

 planted, nor endeavoured to ameliorate the sterility of the soil." 



At the period of the Revolution, agriculture was in very low condition 

 in Scotland, so much so that many farms were unoccupied, and landowners 

 were as eager to get tenants as the tenants now are to get landowners to 

 let them their farms. The union of Scotland with England gave rise to a 

 gradual and steady improvement. In 1723 the Society for Improvement 

 in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland was established ; and in 

 t Lothian great exertions were made by patriotic gentlemen there re- 

 nt to improve the state of cultivation. " The practice of drainage, en- 

 closing, summer fallowing, sowing flax, hemp, rape, turnip, and grass 

 seeds ; planting cabbages after, and potatoes with, the plough, in fields of 

 great extent, is introduced." Summer fallowing, mentioned in the above 

 extract, was not introduced in Scotland till about this period, although in 

 in England from the time of the Saxons and Normans. From this 

 ulture rapidly improved, till the farming of Scotland took that 

 remarkably high position for which it is now so famous. 



le can be said of the early history of the agriculture of Ireland ; for 

 littli- informaii"!. f a purely conjectural character, is at hand. From 



liarity of the climate, which is humid, and the nature of the soil, 

 mi upon limestone, Ireland has chiefly been a pastoral and gra/ 

 , tillage or husbandry has therefore, been little attended to up to 

 ac<> -nt period. And what husbandry has been pr.u-t 



was <.f tin- hMi.-M order, on account chiefly of the small-farm system, 

 which may lie said to hav.- heen the- rule for many years, if it i^ not even 

 still tin- rule. 



