,._>8 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Pabi I. 



always amongst the Bnl t" adopt and make experiment* "i any new mode of culture, new implements of 

 husbandry, or new \ . and the) practised draining, irrigation, fencing, and other improve- 



ment*, on the m tprinciple*. Hieirgri tU-, unremitting industry, ana supe- 



rior cultivation, no) only raised ■ iplril ol exertion and emulation in the surrounding neighbourhood, 

 but gained tbem such celebritj a* Itrst-rate breeder* and agricuK I tbej had pupil* from various 



part* ofthc island, with whom they n ' 8 amplj paid for their 



board and instruction To all I e acquirements, they added itricl economj ; the consequence of which 



was a great accumulation <>i wealth, which 1 1 ■»•>. applied a* occasions offered to increasing their farming 



concern* ; and this to «uch an extent, thai upied rarms to the amount ol about 



["he large capital i extensive concerns required, applied with so much attention 



and in Igment, could not (ail of producing themost lucrative effect*. L'he result is, that, from a small original 



capital, their respective families are now enjoying landed property to the a unt <>i nearly WOW. a year 



j.,,1, > sum invested in (arming), the well merited reward ol unremitting industry 



andexten dtural knowledge. In 1786, Mr George Culley published hi* Observations on /.«"■ 



stmk which mi the first treatise on the subject that attempted to di - domesticated animals "i 



Uritaln and the principle* by which they may be improved The great merit* of this work are evinced 

 b) the number or editions it has gone through In 1793, Mr. <;. Culley, in conjunction with Mr. Bailey 

 ,,;• ci, ,ii n , , . Utui U S ■■ i i n Durham and Northumberland, and in is| .; lie 



died at Fowberry rower, the seat ol bis ion, in tlio T'.'tli year or his age. [Farmer** Mag. voL xiv. p. 274.) 



790. Merino shetp were 6rst brought into England in 1788, when Hi-. Majesty procured 

 a small Bock bv way of Portugal. In 179l,anothei (lock was imported from Spain In 



i. w hen lli Majesty's annual sales commenced, this race began to attract much notice. 

 Dr. Parry, of Bath, has crossed the Ryeland, or Herefordshire sheep, with the merinos, 

 and brought the wool of the fourth generation to a degree of fineness not excelled by that 

 ofthc pure merino itself; while the carcass, in which is the great defect of the merinos, 

 has been much improved. Lord Somerville, and many other gentlemen, have done them- 

 selves much honour by their attention to this race ; but it does not appear that the 

 climate of Britain, the rent of land, and the love of good mutton, admit of substituting 

 it for others of native origin. (Encyc. Brit. art. Agr.) 



791. The agriculture of Scotland, as we have seen, was in a very depressed state at 

 the revolution, from political circumstances. It was not less so in point of professional 

 knowledge. Lord Kaimcs, that excellent judge of mankind and sound agriculturist, 

 declares, in strong terms, that the tenantry of Scotland, at the end of the seventeenth and 

 beginning of the eighteenth century, were so benumbed with oppression or poverty, that 

 the most able instructor in husbandly would have made nothing of them. Fletcher of 

 Saltoun, who lived in the best part of Scotland, and in the end of the seventeenth century, 

 describes their situation as truly deplorable. 



792. John Cockburn, of Ormiston, East Lothlin, a spirited individual, who rose at this 

 time, and to whom the agriculture of Scotland is much indebted, deserves to be men- 

 tioned. He was born in 1685, and succeeded to the family estate of Ormiston in 1711. 

 He saw that internal improvement could only be effected by forming and extending a 

 middle rank of society, and increasing their prosperity. In fact, as an able writer, Brown, 

 the founder of the Farmers Magazine, has remarked, " the middling ranks are the 

 Strength and support of every nation." In former times, what we now call middling 

 classes were not known, or at least little known in Scotland, where the feudal system 

 reigned longer than in England, After trade was introduced, and agriculture improved, 

 the feudal system was necessarily overturned; and proprietors, like other men, began to 

 be estimated according to their respective merits, without receiving support from the ad- 

 ventitious circumstances under which they were placed. 



. 1„ 1723, a number if landholders, at the instigation of Mr. Cockburn, formed 

 themselves into a Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland. The 

 Earl of Stair, one of their most active members, is said to have been the first who culti- 

 vated turnips in that country. This society exerted itself in a very laudable manner, 

 and apparently with considi rable success, in introducing cultivated herbage and turnips, 

 as well as in improving on the former methods of culture: but there is reason to 

 believe, that the influence of (he example of its members did not extend to the common 

 tenantry, who are always unwilling to adopt the practices of those who are placed in a 

 nigher rank, ami supposed to cultivate land for pleasure, rather than profit. Though 

 this socii tv, the earliest in the united kingdom, soon counted upwards of three hundred 

 members, it existed little more than twenty years. Maxwell delivered lectures on agri- 

 culture for one or two sessions at Edinburgh, which, from the specimens he has left, 

 ought to have been encoura 



794. Drainim:, enclosing, summer-fallowing ; sowing flax, hemp, rape, turnip, and grass 

 Seeds ; planting cabbages after and potatoes with the plough, in fields of great extent, are 

 practices which were already introduced : and, according to the general opinion, more corn 

 was now grown where it was never known to grow before, than, perhaps, a sixth of all that 

 the kingdom used to produce at any former period. It is singular that though tile prac- 

 tice of summer fallowing seems to have prevailed in England since the time of the 

 Romans, yet it was neglected in Scotland till about the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century, when it was fust practised by John Walker, tenant at Iieanston, in East Lothian. 

 The late Lord Milton considered this improvement of so much importance, that lie was 



