1136 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



ary plants, on an extensive scale, for the Edinburgh market, 

 about the year 1746. Before that period, the supply was li- 

 mited to what could be carried in baskets ; his cart being the 

 first that appeared with kitchen stuff' on the streets. He even 

 r^sed cucumbers in the fields; but his cart load of these met 

 with so little sale, as not to encourage a repetition. Though 

 he died a pensioner on the poor's funds of the Canongate, his 

 name deserves to be noticed with respect, not only as having 

 introduced several of our best vegetables into cultivation, but 

 from his practice as a- cultivator, which was spirited and judi- 

 cious, however little it turned out to his own account . 



Strantberriea. About 200 acres on the banks of the Esk, and 

 chiefly near Roslin. Crop continued on the same ground 

 without end; but digging down and replanting every fourth 

 year. To change every twenty or thirty years esteemed a better 

 practice. Lands in nursery 200 acres. Mawer's hothouses at 

 Dairy, and hotwalls of his invention, figured and described. 

 The hothouses heated by steam. Mawer was a Lancashire 

 man, and formerly gardener and steward to the Earl of Aber- 

 corn. He was an excellent gardener and farmer; a man of 

 very general information and nighly respected. He was exten- 

 sively employed as a layer out of gardens and roads, and had 

 the general charge of the gardening and tree department on 

 some gentlemen's estates. The compiler of this Encyclopaedia 

 was his pupil, amanuensis, and draughtsman for the three years 

 preceding his death, which happened suddenly from apoplexy 

 in 1800. 



9. Woods and Plantations. 



About 5000 acres so occupied, the greatest part artificial, and 

 planted since 1750. Hedgerow trees never come to any thing for 

 want of shelter : belts do no good unless twenty rows thick at 

 least. 



10. Wastes. 



None : but extensive tracts very poor. 



11. Improvements. 



Draining well understood and extensively practised. Johns- 

 ton, who wrote an account of Elkington's mode of draining, a 

 native of the county. Edinburgh and Leith afford about 

 40,000 cubic yards of^street dung annually, which is commonly 

 laid on the lands within five miles of town. Horse dung, 

 however, carried twelve miles or further. 



More need for weeding on the arable lands of this county than 

 in those of any other in Scotland ; supposed from more town 

 manure being used. The town manure contains the seeds 

 brought in from the country in hay and straw, which are of va- 

 rious kinds; but chiefly wild mustard, wild radish, dock, 

 thistle, poppy, couch grass, &c. 



12. Live Stock. 



Little attention paid to this department. Galloway and 

 Ayrshire cows preferred, and Clydesdale horses. Some buffa- 

 loes of the Mysore variety introduced by Col. Murray : not 

 supposed to turn to any advantage, either as milkers, or for 

 work, or the butcher, but form a variety in parks. Lord Mor- 

 ton subsequently introduced the quagga (Eqvus quaggu) on 

 his park at Morton Hall forthe same purpose. Bees a very po- 

 pular species of live stock with all classes. 



13. Rural Economy. 



Well supplied with work people from the highlands and Ire- 

 land. With the exception of some farm servants in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of Edinburgh, they are, in general, orderly and 

 moral. Children taught in the parish schools ; reading at one 

 shilling and four-ptnce, writing and arithmetic at two snillings 

 and sixpence4>er quarter ; Latin, &c. in proportion. The cot- 

 tages of ploughmen consist generally of two rooms on the 

 ground floor, with a pigstye, and 100 square yards, or upwards, 

 of garden ground. The furniture consists of two beds, a few 

 chairs or stools, table, chest of drawers, clothes press, &c. 

 and they are all ambitious of having a time-piece, if it were 

 only a cuckoo clock. The whole may be worth from ten to 

 twelve pounds. The Sunda;y's dress of a young ploughman 

 consists generally of a coat of blue cloth, at five shillings and 

 sixpence the yard ; velveret vest, corduroy breeches, white cot- 

 ton stockings, calf-skin shoes with black silk shoe-knots, shirt 

 with ruffles at the breast, white nmslin fringed cravat, and a 

 hat worth eight or ten shillings. The shoe-knots and ruffles 

 are, indeed, rather uncommon, but all the other articles are 

 very much in use. They make a very good appearance, and 

 even pay attention to the fashion. In their food they still live 

 in much the same simple way as their forefathers. Oat-meal 

 forms the basis, or prmcipal part of their sustenance. "They 

 have it regularly to breakfast and to supper, made into pottage, 

 which they eat with a small allowance of butter-milk. At 

 dinner they eat it in bread, in addition to their kale, a kind of 



soup made of barley broth, intermixed with greens and pot- 

 herbs. To this they add at times potatoes, and fish of differ- 

 ent kinds : seldom wheat bread, and still more rarely butchers' 

 meat. This mode of living, in which, although with no great 

 variety, there is always abundance of food, seems to be very 

 conformable to the natural constitution of the people, as they 

 are found to go through their labor without fteling them- 

 selves oppressed, and enjoy a state of health which is very sel- 

 dom interrupted. At an average, they are not above two days 

 sick in a year. 



What is above stated refers chiefly to the condition of farm 

 servants, who are hired by the year, and whose principal em- 

 ployment is about the horses, in the fields, or on the road. 

 There is, however, another class of work people attached to a 

 farm, who are hired by the day, or by the week, and whose 

 employment is usually in jobbing about the barns, the fences, 

 or the water furrows. These are called laborers, and in their 

 circumstances and mode of living there is a considerable dif- 

 ference between them and the others. 



Although their wages are in general at a higher rate than 

 the hired servants, yet they make not such a good appearance 

 in their dress, nor are so well seen to in their victuals, as these. 

 They are generally, as we term it, from hand to rmmth, always in 

 want; which seems to arise prinripallv from getting their 

 whole wages in money, from week to week, which leads them 

 continually to market, providing their dailv sustenance; a 

 province left generally to the charge of their wives, who, from 

 this constant running about, get into habits of idleness and 

 want of attention to that good housewifery which is the glory 

 of a decent cottager's wife. 



The quantity of coal used by the common laborers is about 

 three fourths of a ton for each soul in the family yearly, by 

 farmers about two tons, and in families of the highest rank 

 about six tons. The price at the pit is firom five shillings to 

 seven and sixpence the ton, according to its vicinity to Edin- 

 burgh. 



Such was the state of things in 1795. Now (1825), at the 

 distance of thirty years they are, doubtless, materially altered. 

 The use of wheaten bread is general ; butchers' meat much 

 more common, and cottages more commodious. 



14. Political Economy. 



Roads so bad previously to 1714, that wheel carriages for the 



Eurposes of agriculture were very little used: even till 17G0 

 ay and straw carried to Edinburgh on horseback, and the 

 dung taken back the same way inbags. Sledges a good deal 

 employed in those times : they are mentioned in the turnpike 

 act of 1751, but unnoticed in that of 1755, which shows they 

 had been disused; a proof of the extraordinary progress of im"- 

 provement when once commenced, in consequence of a de- 

 mand or desire for it. Forced improvement goes on very dif- 

 ferently. The roads of this county now under one of the 

 M'Adam family. Some recent canals and rail-roads, (ilass, 

 ropes, and soap the chief manufactures. Ironworks at Cra- 

 rnond, where nails, spades, files, &c. are extensively fabricated. 

 Several paper mills, flour mills, and various minor manufac- 

 tories and works for local consumption. 



15. Obstacles to Improvement. 



Illiberality of landlords, game, thirlage, the dogs of Edin- 

 burgh, who greatly harass the sheep, the chief obstacles. 



16. Miscellaneous Observations. 



The Farmers' Society of Dalkeith, for the prosecution of 

 thieves and encouragement of agriculture, instituted in 1760, 

 still exists, and has done much good. It is composed almost 

 entirely of practical farmers. Small's plough, the winnowing 

 and threshing machines early noticed and recommended by 

 this society. The farmers in this county have long had in con- 

 templation to get instituted by legal authority, a society for 

 the creation and management of a pensionary fund for the 

 widows and orphans of farmers, on principles similar to those 

 which govern the widows' fund of the ministers of the Church 

 of Scotland. 



An appendix to the report contains thirteen papers, some of 

 which are curious in an historical point of view ; and as- showing 

 how soon, in a rapidly improving age, a man's best ideas and 

 remarks are distanced by those of a few years afterwards. On6 

 of these papers describes the origin and progress of the British 

 Wool Society, which was begun in this county by Sir John 

 Smclair, in 1791. The economy i)f Johnston's dairy is deserv- 

 ing of notice for accuracy in the details, and for new practices, 

 such as making butter from whey, feeding cows on whins, &c. 

 Macknight, another amateur, and Hepburn, an ingenious 

 landlord and cultivator, are also worth reading. 



7048. EAST LOTHIAN. 190,363 acres of surface, under an exceedingly variable climate, the greater 

 part of excellent soil, and well a(iapted for cultivation, but the southern district, Lammermuir hilly 

 -and mountainous, with a moory soil, severe climate, and chiefly under native grass and herbage. Some of 

 the most distinguished Scotch agricultural patriots, authors, and mechanics belong to this county as 

 Cockburn of Ormiston, Thomas sixth Earl of Haddington, Fletcher of Salton, Adam Dickson Robert 

 Brown of Markle, the projector, and for a long time editor, of the Farmers' Magazine, Somerville', author 

 of the agricultural Report, Meikle, inventor of the threshing machine, and various others. iSmnerville' s 

 General View, 1805. 



1. Property. 



Generally in considerable estates ; the largest about 15,000/. 

 and not many under 100/. a year. Tenure generally of the 

 crown, (i. c. freeehold), some hold of subjects suiierior (copy- 

 hold), and some of the corporate towns of Haddington arid 



2. Buildings and Implements. 

 It may be sufficient to state that thev are such as we have 



described in the body of this work 'as of the (best description. 

 Farms generally large ; medium of the county aliout 400/. a 

 year ; highest 1500/. to 1800/. The first enclosures were made 

 about 1720; farmers were introduced from Holland in 1710; 

 the two-horse plough in 1772 ; and the first threshing machine 

 in 1786. Fallowing was introduced from England about the 

 same time as hedges. The sixth Earl of Haddington was the 

 first proprietor, and John Walker, of Beanston, near Dunbar 

 the first farmer. He took the hint from some English travel- 

 lers, while they spent a night at his house, and with whom he 



had a good deal of conversation upon the subject, so much 

 his satisfaction, that he made an experiment upon six acres the 



following summtr, which he carried through in spite of the 

 animadversions of his neighbors, who were divided in their 

 opinions as to the sanity of his mind,-or the stability of his cir- 

 cumstances. The result of the experiment gave them a better 

 opinion of both, and the return was so abundant as to induce 

 him to extend his next year's fallow break to twenty acres soon 

 after which the practice began to spread, and so early as the 

 year 1724, fallowing upon all the deep strong soils was common 

 throughout the county, and has continued to be so ever since. 

 There can be no doubt that the early excellence of the East 

 Lothian agriculture was in a great measure owing to the intro- 

 duction of fallowing, which, together with the use of drill 

 crops, have continued to place it at the head of the Scotch 

 counties. Potatoes introduced to field culture about 1760- 

 turnips first by Cockburn, of Ormiston, about 1 720 ; re-intro- 

 duced and cultivated in the drill manner in 1760. Flax sown 

 from time immemorial, but chiefly on a smaU scale, and for the 

 home consumption of the country inhabitanU. Every cottasrer 

 has a small quantity, from half a peck to a peck sown, the pro- 

 duce of which furnishes linen for the use of his family. 



