160 On Agricultural Improvements in Roxburgh, 



less or more crooked, and the bends lay all in one direc- 

 tion, originating from the horses naturally falling off 

 from the land, and so taking a less furrow when they 

 came near the end. The broader ridges required to 

 be sown with four casts, the narrower kind with three 

 casts ; the first required four or five reapers, the last 

 always three. Between many of those ridges were 

 banks of three or four feet wide, or more, which had ne- 

 ver been ploughed ; and the first step towards improve- 

 ment was the breaking up of these banks. This was 

 no small undertaking, where the soil was a stiff clay, 

 and matted together with the roots of briars, rushes, and 

 grasses, and the horses from being poorly fed were 

 thin and light. The common mode of ploughing was 

 with four horses, two and tw^o abreast, with a boy to 

 drive them : but to plough up these old tough balks 

 it was necessary to put six horses, or two oxen and 

 three horses before them ; and notwithstanding, this ar- 

 duous task was at last almost universally effected. 

 The success which attended this, suggested the idea of 

 another more formidable improvement. This was no 

 less than leveling the old ridges, and laying out their 

 fields in regular form. This was much reprobated, 

 chiefly by the old men, who did not hesitate to predict 

 the certain ruin of whoever would undertake it : and 

 indeed appearances were much against it at first. To 

 level these high ridges required a number of repeated 

 ploughings, always one way, until the hollow between 

 was filled up higher than the other parts, to allow for 

 the settling of the loose mould ; the field was then 

 laid out into straight narrow lands, which could be 

 sown with two casts, and reaped with two reapers. 



