GREATEST IN THE WEST AND NORTH. 99 



poor clays there has been none. It has been 

 greatest in the grazing counties and in the west 

 and north. The increase shown in Scotland 

 deserves special attention. In that country the 

 larger proportion of grazing-land and the small 

 area in wheat compared with barley and oats, 

 the former having fallen while the latter have 

 risen in price, partly explains this ; but, on the 

 other hand, entails are more strict, and land 

 is understood to be more heavily mortgaged 

 than in England, so that in these respects 

 Scotland has no advantage. It was this greater 

 disability of the entailed Scotch proprietor 

 which drove him earlier to seek a remedy. A 

 little more than a century ago, in 1770, the 

 first Improvement of Land Act was passed, the 

 famous Montgomery Act, the preamble of 

 which clearly explains its origin. "Whereas 

 much mischief arises to the public, which must 

 daily increase so long as the law allowing 

 such entails subsists, if some remedy be not 

 provided," and then it provided a remedy very 

 similar in principle to the Drainage Acts passed 

 for both countries eighty years later. But 

 H 2 



