266 



Scotch Farming in the Lothians. 



Vol. VIII. 



except to the subsoil plough, is utiknown. 

 The universal complement for 100 acres, I 

 found to be, two pair of horses, two plough- 

 men, and one labourer; the number of wo- 

 men and children varying with the particu- 

 lar crop, perhaps, six or eight, during the 

 season. 



In this small allowance of horses, it must 

 be remembered, that the whole 100 acres is 

 arable, there being no permanent pasture. 



The winter keep of the horses is a mix- 

 ture of one-half chopped straw, or chopped 

 any thing, and one-half., steamed turnips, or 

 potatoes; and this feed is found not only 

 much cheaper than hay and oats, but the 

 horses are kept in better condition, and en- 

 joy better health. No horses could look in 

 iiner condition than they did. 



All the Lothian farms are held on nine- 

 teen years'' leases,* and the rents are wholly, 

 or partly, corn rents,j rising and falling with 



than two horses. Their advice was " if really necessary . 

 use heavier horses, but only two of them." It must be 

 remarked, however, that the land in Scotland is, gen 

 erally, of a lighter character than in England, and 

 seldom comes quite up to our stiff clays. 



* I do not know why the exact term of 19 years has 

 been so generally fixed upon. In other parts of Scot- 

 land the leases vary from 18 to 21 years. 



1 1 should have added, to throto the fiuctuations of 

 the market, generally, upon the landlord, instead of 

 the tenant; just as with manufactures, when in con- 

 nection with large sunk capital, fluctuations of de- 

 mand are thrown on the master, instead of the 

 operative, to the great advantage of the latter, as in 

 the case of corn-rents, to the great advantage of the 

 tenant. 



The tenure of farms in Scotland is undergoing a 

 rapid 'conversion into corn-rents, and the importance 

 of such a mode of holding to the farmer, may be esti 

 mated from the following quotations, extracted from 

 the Evidence before the Agricultural Committee:— 

 Mr. Robert Hope. 

 " Is land in the East Lothian let chiefly upon lease ? 

 Ans. It is all let upon lease. 



"What is the usual term of the lease?— Nineteen 

 or twenty-one years. 



"Is it let at a money-rent, or corn-rent? — At least 

 two-thirds of the county is now let at a corn-rent; 

 twenty years ago it was at a money-rent, and now, at 

 least, two-thirds are converted into corn rents. 



" Is the corn-rent regulated by the price of wheat, 

 or of any other grain ? — Almost invariably by the price 

 of wheat; in a few cases, barley, or oats, maybe taken, 

 but nineteen-twentieths are wheat entirely. 



" As your rent has varied according to the price of 

 wheat, and your labourers' wages with the price of 

 corn, it is presumed that you have not suffered much 

 distress from the low price of wheat for the last two 

 years? — No: the farmers who have a corn-rent have not 

 suffered anything for the last four years ■with us, be- 

 cause our rent is regulated by the price of wheat; and 



the yearly fluctuations of the price of corn. 

 The tendency of a corn rent, I conceive to 

 be, to throw fluctuations in the value of a, 

 farm — that arising from an alteration of corn- 

 laws, for example — upon the landlord, in- 

 stead of the tenant. 



Without a long lease, the farmers would 

 not lay out their capital in the free manner 

 they now do ; and with a long lease, they 

 feel independent of their landlords, more as 

 if they were the actual proprietors, and, al- 

 together, hold themselves higher, and with 

 good reason, than the most wealthy of our 

 English farmers. 



In consequence of this independence, and 

 part ownership, as it were, of their farms, 



one great proportion of farm-servants are paid in kind, 

 and their wages rise and fall according to grain chiefly." 



Mr. Andrew Howden. 



" Is that (improvement in the state of the tenantry) 

 in consequence of the fine seasons?— Mainly, I appre- 

 hend, and also in consequence of the conversion of money- 

 rent into corn-rent. 



" You consider that to be a great advantage to the 

 farmer? — The greatest of any. I am the only remain- 

 ing farmer in the parish where I was brought up; ex- 

 cept myself there is not a farmer, nor the son of a 

 farmer, remaining within the parish, but myself. 



"What is the reason of their having all gone away? 

 The money rents which were exacted of them. They all 

 conceived they were to have SOs. a quarter, and their 

 calculations were made upon that ; it soon appeared 

 that that could not be realized, and they were not con- 

 verted into corn-rents, and ruin has been the conse- 

 quence." 



Mr. JonK Brodie. 



" Then the low prices have not, of late years, stopped 

 the improvements in East Lothian?— With some farm- 

 ers it has done so, because they were notable to lieep their 

 farms at a money-rent; and if the proprietors in gene- 

 ral, had not converted their rents into wheat; there 

 would have been a great many more failures. The 

 conversion of money-rents into wheat, was the saving q/" 

 the tenantry." 



Lawrence Oliphant, Esq., M. P. 



" Is the land in Perthshire principally let on leases? 

 Almost entirely on leases of 19 years. 



"Upon a corn-rent or money-rent? — It is now com- 

 ing fast into a corn-rent, and in my opinion ought to be 

 entirely a corn-rent. My opinion is, we are fast shak- 

 ing ourselves together right, and if we are only let 

 alone we shall in a short time, have no complaints; 

 as it is, we have not many. If the landlords would 

 only look after their own interest, and attend to their 

 own business, and take their rent in a corn-rent, and 

 pay their jointures and annuities also by a corn-rent, 

 I have no hesitation in saying, there would be no 

 complaint in the course of the next twenty years." 



I need not further multiply instances of the belief of 

 the Scotch farmers, that they have been " saved," as 

 they term it, by com-renis, but, once more, refer to the 

 "Compendium of Evidence," &c. 



