110 



Agriculture in Scotland, 



Vol. XII. 



out, on correct principles, is more pregnant 

 with really useful and valuable results, than 

 a thousand promiscuous ones, or a hundred 

 carelessly prosecuted; while, of course, the 

 labour and trouble attending the experiments 

 becomes lessened a hundred or a thousand 

 fold. Those, too, who have time and oppor- 

 tunity for more extensive operations, should 

 take care to multiply carefully — instead ol 

 carelessly — conducted experiments. — Gar- 

 dener's Journal. 



Agriculture in Scotland. 



To tie Editor of the Western Times : — 



Sir, — A few weeks since I troubled you 

 with an account of the method adopted in 

 the southern counties of Scotland, of paying 

 farm labourers, &c.; tlierefore have again 

 taken the liberty of trespassing on your val- 

 uable columns, by giving your agricultural 

 readers some idea of the manner in which 

 farming operations are conducted in the Lo- 

 thians of Scotland or counties of Hadding- 

 ton, Edinburgh, and Linlithgow. I shall not 

 enter minutely into details: those who wish 

 to be more fully acquainted with Scotch 

 farming should visit the country; and whe 

 ther they do so on a tour of profit or amuse 

 ment, they will be most amply repaid. 



The Lothian farms consist each of 200 to 

 500 Scotch acres, the Scotch acre being one- 

 fourth larger than the English statute acre, 

 .therefore I shall limit my remarks to the 

 current acre of the Lothians. A farm of 

 300 to 500 acres is by common consent the 

 utmost which one farmer is thought capable 

 of managing. The farm buildings are small, 

 compact, and situated near the centre of the 

 farm, and have always a steam engine of six 

 to eight horse power for threshing, and other 

 purposes. At the entrance of the farm-yard 

 is the dwelling of the grieve, or bailiff; for 

 every farmer keeps a bailiff", who superin- 

 tends everything on the farm, and is cogni- 

 sant of everything that goes in or out of the 

 farm buildingte. I found the grieves univer- 

 sally clever, acute, and sensible, and their 

 minds open to what was passing in the world 

 beyond the limits of their own immediate 

 neighbourhood : this speaks well of what 

 education has done for the peasantry of this 

 part of Scotland. The farmers themselves 

 are men of much superior education, man- 

 ners, and style of living, to the equally 

 wealthy ones of the farming counties of 

 England : they are all of most hospitable 

 habits. Few of them are without a hand- 

 some phaeton for the use of the female mem- 

 bers of their family. One feature through- 

 out the Lothian farms may be remarked — a 

 great uniformity in the quality of the crops. 



Xot, as elsewhere, here a good farmer and 

 there a bad one, here a failing crop and 

 there a middling one. and here again a finer 

 one, but nearly all the same; showing that 

 farming is there reduced to a science, leav- 

 ing nothing uncertain but the seasons. The 

 farms are divided into fields of 20 to .50 acres 

 each, the hedges are dipt low and thm, and 

 the ditches covered in, so as to occupy as 

 little space as possible. There are no trees 

 in the hedge-rows, and few furrows in the 

 land; and thus, between one thing and an- 

 other, the entire area of the farm is made 

 productive, and the expense of fences and 

 gates is reduced to a minimum. Another 

 thing worth noting is, that permanent grass, 

 either as meadow or pasture, is unknown, or 

 nearly so: the only hay or pasture is derived 

 from artificial grass sown in the regular ro- 

 tation of crops. The rent of the Lothian 

 farms is from £3 10s. to £7 per acre, and 

 these high rents the farmers not only pay 

 jAy/^ thrive upon. They are enabled to pay 

 these rents and thrive, partly by the heavy 

 crops arising from skilful culiivation, and 

 partly by economy of management in eve'ry 

 department. Actual wages, however,^ are 

 as high in England, viz: — 10s. to lis. a 

 week for a common labourer, 12s. for a 

 ploughman, and 9d. a day for women — ten 

 hours to the day. As to the great amount 

 of produce, it must be remembered that all 

 the land is under the plough. Five quar- 

 ters of wheat, ten of oats, seven of barley, 

 and from thirty to thirty-five tons of turnips, 

 are reckoned a good average to the acre. 



pjconomy of management is shown in the 

 division of employment confining the atten- 

 tion of the farmer to as few points as possi- 

 ble, in a due rotation of crops, so as to have 

 no land lying idle or unproductive, and in 

 the use of machines and horses instead of 

 manual labour, whenever circumstances ad- 

 mit of it. 



All the Lothian farms are held on nine- 

 teen years' leases, and the rents wholly or 

 partly corn rents, rising and falling with the 

 yearly fluctuations of the price of corn. 

 Without a long lease, the fanners would not 

 lay out their capital in the free manner they 

 now do, and with a long lease they feel in- 

 dependent of their landlords, more as if they 

 were the actual proprietors. In consequence 

 of this independence and part ownership, as 

 it were, of their farms, men of much supe- 

 rior rank, education, and capital engage in 

 the business of farming than is the case in 

 England, or, indeed, than ever will be the 

 case in England under existing circum- 

 stances. 



The foundation of all improvements in 

 the Scotch farming is the system oi thorough 



