B E tt 



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The light swing-plough is the chief instrument of 

 tillage: it works between the rows of turnips or benns with 

 LIU' horse, acting as a hone-hue, and throwing the earth 

 alternately from the plant*, anil towards them. Sinipl>> 

 lu.rse hoe* are also in general use, as well as narrow grub- 

 bers i.i g.i between the rows and loosen the soil, and doulilc 

 iiioiild-lioitd ploughs for earthing-up potatoes : common har- 

 ind rollers complete the assortment of instruments in 

 general iisi-. The old and expensive operation of weeding 

 the crowing crops by hand, which is still practised in more 

 southern counties, is here almost entirely avoided by the care 

 taken to clean the land for turnips, or when it is fallowed. 

 The only weeds which require attention are docks and 

 thistles, which will occasionally spring up in spite of every 

 precaution. 



On the whole, we may pronounce the husbandry of the 

 counties in the north of England, and the south of Scot- 

 land, to be the most economical and profitable of any prac- 

 in the British empire, and calculated to produce the 

 greatest rent to the landlord, with a fair profit to the farmer, 

 and a comfortable existence to the labourer. 



Cattle. There is nothing to be particularly remarked in 

 the cattle of Berwickshire. On the hills there is a coarse 

 breed of black cattle, which fatten well in the richer pas- 

 tures of the valleys, and produce well-flavoured meat. The 

 short-horned oxen from Yorkshire and Durham are in re- 

 pute with the larger farmers for stall feeding. The Holder- 

 ness and Ayrshire cows are preferred for the dairy and for 

 their calves. Oxen are scarcely ever used in the plough or 

 for draught, experience having established the superiority 

 of horses, in spite of all the assertions and calculations 

 of-theoretieal writers. Horses are more active and obedient 

 in all kinds of work, and the decrease in the value of the 

 animal, when old, is more than compensated by hi* superior 

 usefulness while in his prime, and by the variety of uses to 

 which he may be put. The farm horses are generally of a 

 middle size, muscular, and active, with clean legs without 

 much hair on them, nearer allied in shape to the coach- 

 li'irse than to the heavy English cart-horse. They are 

 mostly bred in the counties of Ayr and Lanark, in the 

 . Those which are bred in Berwickshire are chiefly out 

 of picked inures, and got by stallions imported from the south 

 or west. But the breeding of horses is not a regular branch 

 of the rural economy of this county, as it is in Yorkshire or 

 Lincolnshire. A pair of good horses is considered sufficient 

 fur the tillage of forty or fifty acres of arable land of a mo- 

 derate degree of tenacity ; and as one-half of the land is 

 always in grass, a pair of horses to every 80 or 100 acres 

 of a farm of turnip-land is a fair proportion ; provided the 

 distance from markets and from lime be not considerable, 

 as this makes a material difference in the carting required 

 to be done. 



The teams work ten hour* a day in summer, at two 

 yokings of five hours each, and six hours in winter, at one 

 yoking. They plough an acre and a quarter of land on an 

 average in a day in summer, and three-quarters of an 

 acre in winter, which is more than is usually done in the 

 south, if wo except the light lands in Norfolk, where 

 they frequently plough an acre and a half or more in a 

 day. The horses are fed in summer on green food, cut 

 fresh for them, and in winter on straw and oats. When 

 hay is scarce, it is reserved for the time when they work 

 hardest in spring. Each horse has usually two or thm 

 - of oats per day for nine months in the year ; ih< 

 other three months they have green clover, which is suffi- 

 cient without corn. 



S/itfp. There are several sorts of sheep in Berwickshire 

 On the hills the black-faced Tweedale sheep are most com- 

 mon, being strong and hardy, and able to endure the se- 

 venty of the climate. They arc horned, and their wool is 

 coarse. In the Merge, and along the slopes of the hills, tin 

 improved breeds have been introduced from the south ; 

 rhiutly the Leicester*, as they thrive admirably on the oh: 

 pasture* and artificial grasses, which the convertible system 

 of husbandry pr.i-luccs in great abundance. They air ! 

 adapted to small iuclosurcs. as they seldom roam about liko 

 the wilder breeds, provided they have sufficient food around 

 them. The Cheviot breed of sheep, which is common in 

 Roxburghshire, i also to be met with on the lower range of 

 hills in Berwickshire. A very good breed has been pro- 

 duced by crossing the Cheviot with the Leicester. The 

 Southdown breed of sheep has been tried by a few indivi 

 duals and found to answer well ; but it U not to general as 



he Leicester and the crossed breeds above-men ttone 

 3ood sound grass will maintain five I.circMer sheep mi 'in 

 acre during the -ix siimn . and half an acre qf 



urnips will keep them ' thus the 



I' grass and turnip- n :m- 



ivemeut <>l the -liccji. and .ere so large a 



:.> arable land is regular. u to grass, 



ind this is chielly led off with sheep or rattle, it is of great 

 mportanci* to the farmer, that he should be alii. 



animals that are best adapted t . tin- soil ami climate, 

 and that will improve most rapidly on the food which is gi\en 

 them, llcucc great attention is paid to the improvement 

 of the various breeds of sheep ; and rams have been *<! 

 and brought from I. n. '-!, T-lmc and Northumberland at a 

 great expense. A peculiar branch of rural economy has 

 arisen from this, that of rearing rams for the sole purpose 

 of letting them for the season. The best ewes are selected 

 tt) breed from, and the ram lambs are kept on the most nu- 

 tritious and invigorating food, in order to bring them to a 

 great size, and make them excessively fat at two \ears old. 

 They arc then let to the breeders at very high prices. Whe- 

 ther this over-feeding is judicious or not is very doubtful ; 

 hut it is natural to suppose, that an animal which can be 

 made so fat at an early age possesses a constitution well 

 adapted to convert food into flesh and fat, rather than into 

 bone and sinew, and, consequently, is more profitable to the 

 grazier; and that this quality will be more or less imparted 

 to his progeny. Hut the nature and quantity of the food re- 

 quired to fatten him should also be taken into considera- 

 tion, for it is not alwa\s the I:, (test animal that gives the 

 greatest profit, but the animal that i. u de- 



gree of fatness on the smallest quantity or the cheapest 

 kinds of food. Those extremely fat animals that are ex- 

 hibited at shows are seldom very profitable on the whole 

 when slaughtered; and a breed which fattens moderately, 

 but quickly, may be much more profitable than one which 

 will grow to a very great size, and become extremely fat, 

 hut slowly. This is one reason why the small highland 

 cattle, are in general so much more profitable to the grazier, 

 in moderate pastures, than the heavy Durham or Hereford 

 breeds. Leicester sheep, which are very profitable on rich 

 grass land, would scarcely live on the downs. 



Pigs. There was formerly a great prejudice in Scotland 

 against the use of pork for food, and consequently that 

 useful animal the pig was not much prized. The more 

 frequent intercourse with England introduced the rearing 

 and fatting of pigs as an article of commerce, and a : 

 quantity of pickled pork and some bacon was exported from 

 all the principal ports. The old prejudice is now alnmst 

 entirely overcome, and pork adds much to the comforts uf 

 the farmer and the labourer. The breed of pigs ha> 

 much improved by careful selection and the mi 

 the best breeds. The Chinese piL's have contribut- 

 this improvement by their great fruitfiilness. No particular 

 breed can be named as prevailing in Berwickshire, but 

 some very good pigs are met with here and there : and, from 

 their prolific nature, a very little attention will soon disr.'ver 

 the most profitable kinds, and make the coarser be re- 

 jectcd. Bacon is not so generally used as in the south of 

 England : pickled jxirk is preferred. The Scotch labourer 

 docs nut waste the liquor in which the pork has been boiled, 

 by throwing it into the hog-wash, but makes a mess with 

 cabbages, pease, and oatmeal, in which the pig broth is an 



;;al ingredient. 



.. The principal fairs in Berwickshire are at Dunse, 

 Berwick, Lander, Coldstn-am, Greetilaw, and Oldham- 

 und the great fairs in Northumberland and those in East 

 and West Lothian amply supplv the farmer with means of 

 purchasing or selling stock. The first fair at Dunse is 

 held on the first Thursday in .Tune, where there is gene- 

 rally a good show of fat cattle and milch cows. The former 

 are chiefly bought by dealers from the south, who 

 them to Morpeth, Darlington, Skip). 111, Wakdielil 

 This fair i- . .1 as the best fair in the south of 



Scotland for fat cattle. A considerable quantity of two- 



'.ld beasts, in good con. hi inn, are bought to L 



Inshire and other English counties, when- the\ are 

 kept for twelve or eighteen months and then sent to Smith- 

 field, win-re they pass for Lincolns, although bred in S 

 land. The heiter,, in the same manner, find their wav 

 southward, and when they have cahed pass I'.ir ' 

 or Durham cows. The breeders of short 'MM-II- in 

 wiclubin may challenge any other county for producing 



