30 TIREY. AGRICULTURE. 



have not been introduced ; and these are far from bearing 

 even a tolerable proportion to the whole. Isla, Colonsa, 

 Gigha, Sky, Mull, Coll, Rasay, and a few tracts in the 

 Long Island, exhibit, in fact, almost the only excep- 

 tions. 



If the details of the tillage be examined, they will be 

 found as defective as the general plan. No winter or 

 autumnal ploughing is used, but this operation is con- 

 ducted in the spring in a most inefficient and slovenly 

 manner. The traveller who chances not to arrive until 

 the harvest is ready, may be surprised to see so many 

 examples of what he will imagine to be the modern drill 

 husbandry, but will soon discover that the appearance 

 arises from the seed having been sown after one ploughing, 

 as mentioned in Tirey. Thus it is lodged in the furrows, 

 where it is afterwards imperfectly covered by a bad har- 

 row ; producing a late crop, yet not a clean one, while 

 the advantages arising from deep ploughing are neglected. 

 Cases indeed occur of soils so light and sandy, as in Tirey 

 and many parts of the Long Island, where neither the 

 ground nor the seed could resist the efforts of the wind, 

 were it thoroughly ploughed. In such cases the interest 

 of the farmer, as well as that of his neighbours, would 

 be to avoid ploughing altogether, and to lay down such 

 fields in grass. But two causes prevent this, the tempta- 

 tion offered by sea weed, and the smallness of farms; 

 which compel the little tenant, who possibly has no other 

 land but a driving sand, to procure a crop of corn from 

 it on the best terms he can ; an argument among many 

 which will occur at every step, for a different division, 

 and in many cases for an enlargement of farms. 



It would lead into details inconsistent with the object 

 of this sketch, to particularize the defects in harrowing, 

 scarifying, weeding, and other operations connected with 

 ploughing ; or to notice the total absence of some, such, 

 for instance, as that of rolling. 



The reader must perceive that under the system de- 



