402 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 7. 



to make a general survey through the principal 

 parts of Scotland, with regard to introducing the 

 practice scientifically. 



Alter having traversed the grater part of the 

 country, introducing irrigated meadowy into Caith- 

 hessshire, Clackmannanshire, Peeblesshire, Perth- 

 shire, &c, my father was engaged by his Grace 

 the Duke of JBuccleueh, in 1798, to lay out and 

 superintend the making of as many water mea- 

 dows as should be found practicable, and at the 

 same time advisable, on his grass farms in the 

 south of Scotland — the tenants paying interest on 

 the capital laid out. On these terms, several hun- 

 dred acres were formed into water meadows, at an 

 expense of from four pounds to six pounds per 

 acre, which were regularly managed for several 

 years; but the greater number of the tenants be- 

 ing (breed into this improvement,* and grain, in 

 the time of war, getting so very dear, the most of 

 them thought it would' be more advantageous to 

 plough them up; but a few of the more enterpri- 

 sing tenants, being convinced that a crop of hay 

 and the aftergrass would be of more benefit to 

 them than any crop of grain they could produce, 

 have been fortunate enough to keep their meadows 

 entire. Although they are not so well managed 

 as they ought to be, ye't the crops are sufficiently 

 abundant to prove that it was neither the quality 

 of the soil nor poorness of the water that caused 

 their failure, but the carelessness and bad man- 

 agement of the occupiers. To prove this asser- 

 tion, I need only mention two or three meadows 

 on his Grace's estate which are similarly situated, 

 both with regard to soil and water, with the mea- 

 dows ploughed up. 



Ivirkhouse meadow, in the parish ofTraquair, 

 contains nine Scotch acres, and was the first sci- 

 entifically formed irrigated meadow in Scotland; 

 the land, in its original state, was valued at 5s. 

 per acre of yearly rent; the formation cost £4 

 per acre; but the hay crop for the last twenty 

 years has averaged two hundred and sixty stone 

 per acre, and the aftergrass 12s. per acre — making 

 upwards of £7 per acre of gross produce. About 

 the same time an irrigated meadow was made at 

 Kirkhope, on the Ettrick, and another at Mount 

 Benger Burn, on the Yarrow, which, according 

 to the tenants' own account, pays them better 

 than any piece of land of the same extent on their 

 farms, although the land, in its natural state, was 

 worth little or nothing. 



I should think those instances of the advantage 

 of irrigation, even in high pastural districts, are 

 sufficient to put the utility of" the practice beyond 

 all doubt, and the public on their guard against 

 any imposition. 



On Lord Traquair's property, there are three 



*A little after the middle of last century, the late 

 Adam Kennedy, Esq. of Romano, endeavored to in- 

 troduce potatoes and turnips into the tenants' rotation 

 of crops, by offering a deduction of one pound per 

 acre from the rent for every acre under turnips and 

 potatoes; but a scheme thus proposed by the landlord 

 was suspected as tending to his own interest only, and 

 the effect of the premium was extremely limited. 

 However, when Mr. M'Dougal, from Roxburghshire, 

 commenced his system on a farm at Linton in 1778, 

 farming at his own risk, the system was immediately 

 adopted universally. (See the Rev. Mr. Findlater's 

 Agricultural Report of Peeblesshire.) 



irrigated meadows; two of them are so much ne- 

 C'lected, that there is every reason to believe that 

 the} 7 , in a very short time, will share the same 

 fate with many of the Duke of Buccleuch's; but 

 the third one, on Orchard Mains farm, of about 

 twelve acres, which is tolerably well managed, 

 gives about three hundred stone of hay per 

 acre. 



Robert Nutter Campbell, Esq. of Kailzie, 

 commenced irrigating in 1797, by forming five and 

 three-fourth acres of the lower part of his lawn 

 into water meadow; the land, in its natural state, 

 was worth £2 per acre of yearly rent, the forma- 

 tion cost £7 10s. per acre, and the average crop 

 of hay for the last twenty years has been three 

 hundred stone per acre, of so superior a quality, 

 that several gentlemen preterit to clover and rye- 

 grass hay for their riding horses. It is generally 

 worth 8d. per stone, and the aftergrass 20s. per 

 acre, which makes the gross produce of the land 

 £ 11 per acre. Mr. Campbell has another water 

 meadow, eight and three-fourth acres, formed out 

 of a perfect hog, only worth 5s. per acre before 

 the formation, which cost £5 10s. per acre. It 

 generally gives two hundred stone of hay per 

 acre, worth 6d. per stone, and aftergrass 10s. per 

 acre, making £5 10s. per acre of gross produce, 

 instead of 5s. If the supply of water were more 

 abundant, these meadows would produce consider- 

 ably more. 



The late Sir George Montgomery, Bart. o( 

 Magbiehill, in Peeblesshire, commenced irrigating 

 in 1798, by forming about an acre into water mea- 

 dow. This little experimental meadow turned out 

 so productive, that the baronet continued opera- 

 tions on a larger scale, by collecting the small 

 streams that ran through his property to aid him 

 in procuring as much natural hay as possible by 

 irrigation. He, therefore, in the year 1S15, con- 

 verted the lowlands at the Plewlands into irrigated 

 meadows; they contain nine acres, and consist 

 partly of boggy and partly of dry soil, worth £2 

 per acre in their original state. The effect of this 

 improvement, for several years past, has been 

 three hundred stone of very superior hay, per 

 acre averaging 8d. per stone,* and the aftergrass 

 20s. per acre, which makes the gross produce of 

 the land worth £11 per acre. Sir George has 

 cut these meadows sometimes twice a year, but 

 owing to the high climate, he found it more ad- 

 vantageous only to cut them once, and commence 

 feeding off the aftergrass earlier in the autumn. 

 The expense of making those meadows was £5 

 per acre. 



In 1813, the Whitefield meadows were formed 

 into bed- work; the greater part was so boggy that 

 the miserable crop of grass was obliged to be 

 dragged or carried to the surrounding high 

 ground, there to be made into hay, which hardly 

 paid the expense of collecting; but the land, since 

 it was irrigated, is completely dry, and the crop of 

 hay is of a superior quality, and is never less than 

 two hundred and fifty stone per acre; which, at 

 6d. per stone, with the aftergrass at eighteen shil- 

 lings per acre, makes upwards of seven pounds 

 per acre of gross produce. 

 If those meadows were sufficiently supplied 



*The hay which those meadows produced in 1S26 

 was sold by public sale as high as Is. 4d. per stone of 

 twenty-two lbs. 



