254 



Scotch Farming in the Lothians. 



Vol. VIII. 



Lancashire and Cheshire, be tripled, and 

 this without any material addition to the 

 agricultural population.* 



The Lothian farms consist, each, of 

 200 to 500 Scotch acres, the Scotch acre 

 being one fourth larger than the English 

 statute acre; and I shall limit my remarks 

 to the current acre of the Lothians, not 

 knowing whether it is, or is not, the com- 

 mon measure of Scotland.f Some few farms 



and ill some cases from 5(1. per acre, to 404-. and 45s. 

 I may also, I believe, quote the authority of a compe- 

 tent authority, Mr. Ogilvie, for the correctness of my 

 assertion, that the produce of Lancashire and Cheshire 

 might be tripled. I, by no means, intend to assert 

 that the produce of every individual farm in England 

 might be doubled, far from it : of some, it might be 

 difficult to increase the produce at all. The great defi- 

 ciency with our best farming in England is in economy 

 of management, not weight of produce. A great portion, 

 however, of the North-west of England and Wales, is 

 undrained grass land, almost in a state of nature, divid- 

 ed into very small fields by rambling, uncouth hedges, 

 filled perhaps with timber trees. I have no doubt, by 

 the introduction of furrow draining, putting the land 

 through a proper rotation of crops, and throwing it 

 Into good sized farms, the produce of such land might 

 be tripled. 



Even the fine pastures of Northamptonshire and 

 Leicestershire, which supply Smithfleld with the finest 

 beef, if subjected to a proper rotation under the plough, 

 might probably furnish London with the same quan- 

 tity of fat cattle, as at present, and yet be made to 

 yield a full quota of Corn crops in addition ; and, if I 

 am rightly informed, some of the farmers have already 

 intimated to their landlords that they could do so, and 

 that they were anxious to make the experiment. 



* Few parts of Scotland have improved more than 

 the County of Perth, which exported last year about 

 100,000 tons of potatoes to the London market. The 

 population, however, seems actually to have dimin 

 ished since the census of 1830. In the arable districts 

 of England, the population is probably ample for an 

 improved, though a more economical system of farm- 

 ing, but, in the grazing counties, a great addition 

 would be required, should the land be broken up, and 

 put through a proper rotation. If the produce of the 

 land could be anything like doubled, whilst the popu- 

 lation remained the same, a double portion of the com- 

 forts and necessaries of life must fall to the share of 

 each individual ; and if the labouring classes did not 

 multiply their numbers too rapidly, this state of pros- 

 perity might continue for generations. 



The low rate of provisions would, in such a case, 

 render Corn Laws as useless, as those which profess to 

 protect the Cotton Trade, imposing a duty on the im- 

 portation of that which is never imported. 



1 1 believe this acre is common to all Scotland: if so, 

 they are as much behind us in this, as before us in other 

 things; for we have no less than four or five acres 

 current in the same county, some of them more than 

 double the measure of the otbers, thus causing great 

 eonfustoii. 



are rather smaller, chiefly those a few miles 

 from Edinburgh, upon which it is not neces- 

 sary to keep stock for the purpose of manure; 

 and some few are larger, where stock is fat- 

 tened for market ; but a farm of 300 to 500 

 acres is, by common consent, the utmost 

 which one farmer is thought capable of 

 managing himself, just as a concern of 500 

 looms is considered, in this country, enough 

 for the personal superintendence of one man. 



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. The corn is put up in stacks, in 

 a stack-yard, near the thrashing machine; 

 the stacks being of such a size, as that one 

 may furnish a day^s work for the machine.\ 



At the entrance of the farm-yard, is the 

 dwelling of the greeve, or bailiff'; for every 

 farmer keeps a bailiff, who superintends 

 every thing on the farm, and is cognizant of 

 every thing that goes in, or out of the farm 

 buildings. A fact which struck me much 

 was, that the greeve received only one shil- 

 ling a loeek more than the ploughman. The 



I The Steam Engine, ■a'pon Lothian farms now almost 

 universal, is rapidly spreading throughout Scotland, 

 and superseding the use of horse power for driving the 

 thrashing machine and other farm work. As the engine 

 appeared to be used only twenty or thirty times a year, 

 I could not clearly understand its advantage over 

 horses. I have, therefore, since my return, written to 

 Scotland for an explanation, the subject being one of 

 considerable importance. The answer will be found in 

 the Appendix. Meantime, I suspended the order I had 

 given for an engine. 



A good six-horse, high pressure engine, of the kind 

 in use on the farms in Scotland, costs £110 or £120. 

 It requires about three-quarter cwt. of Newcastle coal 

 to get up the steam, and twenty-four cwt. will thrash 

 out and dress one hundred quarters of grain. So, at least, 

 said my informant. I find, however, that the evidence, 

 before quoted, gives a ton of coals (though of an infe- 

 rior quality to the Newcastle) as the consumption of 

 ton hours, and thirty quarters of wheat, and forty 

 quarters of other grain, as the quantity thrashed and 

 dressed in that time. 



Thrashing machines cost, complete, with finishers 

 and dressers, XSO or £90. Excellent ones are made by 

 Carlow, of Lennie Port, Costorphine, Edinburgh. They 

 are infinitely superior to the miserable machines creep- 

 ing into use in the south of England, and turn out 

 wheat ready for the sack, in superior condition, and 

 less damaged than vihen thrashed with the flail. The 

 straw also is less cut than in the rude Sufliblk thrashing 

 machine. 



It is now about twelve years since mobs went through 

 the south of Englantl, breaking the few thrashing ma- 

 chines then in use. It ended in the Magistrates recom- 

 mending the farmers to lay them aside; which was 

 done. A few travelling machines now go sneaking 

 about from farm to farm. 



