450 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 8 



no means so bare as it ought to be before the win- 

 ter watering commences. The supply of water 

 for the small meadow was very scanty for the. 

 \vhole summer; but, notwithstanding this disad- 

 vantage, it led forty-three sheep from 21st July 

 till 18th August; and, after being again watered, 

 it kept ten milch cows from 15th September till 

 20th October. 



"The soil of both those meadows is a very 

 light sandy loam, about twelve inches thick, and 

 lying upon a coarse gravel bottom of unknown 

 depth. Glendevon being situated in the midst of 

 the Ochil hills, the climate is severe during the 

 winter, and the spring very late. The meadows 

 are about seven hundred feet above the level of 

 the sea. In such a climate, and at such a height, 

 as far as I can judge, I should say that the ground, 

 well laid down in grass, will give much more pro- 

 duce than it would do if ploughed for corn, &c. 



"The rent paid in that part of the country for 

 the best grass parks is £2 an acre, and in the 

 hands of the proprietor it may be supposed to 

 make a sum of about £3. 



"However this may be, it is universally allowed 

 by all the farmers in the neighborhood, that Miss 

 Rutherford's meadows will be as valuable in pas- 

 ture, after the hay is removed, as they were before 

 they were watered. If this is the case, and I 

 think the statement a very fair one, it is evident 

 that, after deducting from the value of the hay the 

 expense of making it and of the waterman's wa- 

 ges, &c, the remainder will show the return made 

 for the capital expended on the improvement. 



"The formation of the meadows cost exactly 

 £20 an acre, and the average price of hay about 

 Glendevon being 6d. a stone, the account will 

 stand thus: — 



To three hundred stone, at 6d. £ 7 10 



Deduct expense of making hay £0 10 



repairing works, &c. 1 



1 10 



Clear produce per acre, £6 



which, being the return for the outlay of £20, is 

 at the rate of thirty per cent.; and it ought to be 

 observed, that the calculation proceeds upon the 

 supposition that the produce is not to increase as 

 the ground becomes richer and richer, in conse- 

 quence of continued watering. On the other 

 hand, however, I ought to mention that, although 

 I could not perceive any error in the estimate 

 which I had made of the profits of irrigation, still 

 however I was so much astonished at the appa- 

 rent result, that I was fearful lest I, like other san- 

 guine projectors, had taken too favorable a view of 

 the improvement, as I was sensible that if any er- 

 ror existed in my calculation, it could only pro- 

 ceed from my estimate of the former value of the 

 f round, before it was formed into water meadows, 

 requested my friend Mr. Brown, the respected 

 minister of Glendevon, to give me his opinion of 

 the value of his glebe, which is situated close to 

 the meadows, and the soil of which is of precisely 

 the same nature. You will perceive by his letter, 

 which I enclose, that, while he states that the af- 

 tergrass of the meadows is as valuable as the 

 pasture formerly was, still he estimates the value 

 of Kis ground, when under a rotation of crops, at 

 £5 per acre. 



"It must, however, be considered, that as Mr. 

 Brown consumes the whole produce of his glebe 

 in his own family, he returns a greater part of the 

 crop to the ground than any farmer, with a mod- 

 erate single farm, could possibly do, because the 

 farmer must dispose of a very considerable portion 

 of his crop. You will also perceive, that Mr. 

 Brown purchases every year between three hun- 

 dred and four hundred stone of hay, the whole of 

 which, after being converted into manure, is ap- 

 plied to the arable part of his glebe, which con- 

 tains only four acres; and that he does not charge 

 any portion of the expense of this hay against the 

 ground, which it appears to me he ought to do, as 

 certainly, if ho did not purchase that quantity of 

 hay annually, and apply the manure it produces 

 to the ground, he woidd not have such crops as 

 ho has. But, however this ma}' be, Mr. Brown's 

 estimate of the value of the ground ought to be 

 much more relied on than mine; and I therefore 

 request you will attach it to this statement, by 

 which means your readers will be able to judge 

 for themselves. If they should think with Mr. 

 Brown, that, in that high situation and severe cli- 

 mate, a rotation of crops is more profitable than 

 grazing, they will probably reduce the estimate 

 which I have made of the result of irrigation to 

 twenty per cent.; but if they should agree with 

 me in thinking that grazing is the most profitable 

 husbandry in a country like Glendevon, then 1 

 have no doubt that they will also agree with me 

 in saying, that Miss Rutherford's profit upon the 

 capital expended in forming her meadows is not 

 less than thirty per cent. You are well aware of 

 the peculiar difficulties which had to be overcome 

 in forming the conductor for the large meadow; 

 and it was owing to those peculiar difficulties that 

 the expense of forming Miss Rutherford's mea- 

 dows was so great. 



I am, dear Sir, 



Your obedient servant, 



nr. c. w. AYTOUN." 



"Glendevon, 2d Dec. 182S. 



"3Iy Dear Sir — Your queries lead into a wide 

 field, and require more experience than I have yet 

 attained to, to answer them all. I shall, therefore, 

 confine myself to that part which relates to the 

 profit which the ground lying on the river side 

 may afford to the cultivator. The soil is of no 

 great depth, and rests on a gravel bottom. I have 

 about four acres of this kind of land included in 

 the glebe, and have managed them in the follow- 

 ing manner: — 



"After liming the whole, I took a crop of oats, 

 then a green crop, after that a crop of barley sown 

 with grass seeds; this was succeeded by a crop of 

 hay, then oats, &c. as before. The produce from 

 this management, on an average, was nearly as 

 follows: — oats, from seven to eight bolls; potatoes, 

 about sixty bolls, measured by the Linilthgow bar- 

 ley firlot, heaped; barley, six bolls; and hay, 

 about two hundred stone. After deducting the 

 seed, the produce may be stated as follows: — oats, 

 six bolls, at 17s. per boll, £5 2s.; potatoes, fifty- 

 six bolls, at 5s. per boll, £ 14; barley, five bolls, 

 at 20s. per boll, £5; and hay, two hundred stone, 

 at 6d. per stone, £5 — the hay oftener above than 

 below that price, the second cutting paying lor the 



