338 



FARSIERS' REGISTER. 



[No, 6 



clay-marl to a <TFeat extent, at a time when the 

 use ol" that manure was scarcely Ivnovvn in that 

 (iistrict; and 'instead of druppijif; the attempt, as 

 ' Lord M into seems to iiave done, he persevered for 

 ' several years, till better access was opened up to 

 ' iime, and till he ibund that, owing to the trouble 

 ' and expense attending marl, he could manure a 

 'larger extent ol" gmund yearly wiih lime, at a 

 ' cheaper rate.'* But as the soil of llarperton was 

 not adajited to turnips, he did not commence the 

 culture of this root upon a large scale, till he en- 

 tered to the farm of Frogden on his own account, 

 jn 1759. 



The arable laml of the farm of Frog.len is chiefly 

 of a sandy soil, and was at that time without iences, 

 and otherwise in a very unproductive state, so that 

 great exerlions in enclosing, cleansing, draining, 

 and manuring the land, were required for several 

 years at the conunencement of Mr. Dawson's 

 lease. Here lie ern ployed lime to so great an ex- 

 tent, that the proprietor, afraid of the injurious ef- 

 lects which had been olten experienced Horn se- 

 vere cropping after lime, readily agreed with Mr. 

 Dawson for a lile-rent lease, at a small advance of 

 rent, in addition to the original one of 19 or 21 

 3'ears. It is not true, as has been alledged, that 

 Mr. Dawson used so much lime, because the pro- 

 prietor had obliged himself to pay its original cost. 

 The whole expense was incurred by himself, 

 though his exertions at that time were so extraor- 

 dinary as to appear to all his neighbors little suited 

 to the circumstances of a tenant. The lime was 

 brought from a distance of almost twenty miles, 

 at first in four-wheeled, wagons, drawn by lour 

 horses, but afterwards in two-horse carls, to which 

 he always continued to give the preicrence over 

 wagons. 



braining, wnich was then very little known in 

 Roxburghshire, was executed by Mr. Dawson 

 in a very effectual manner ; and, when he was in 

 want of stones, he had recourse to an expedient 

 which he had seen adojjted in Essex. With im- 

 plements contrived for the purpose, the drains were 

 made wide at the top, of the requisite depth, and 

 very narrow at the bottom. He then filled them 

 with broom, placing the bar stalks undermost, 

 and compressing their bushy tops above, through 

 which tlie earth can penetrate but a very little 

 way. Some of them, saj-s Dr. Douglas, | have 

 lasted upwards of thirty years, without any ap- 

 pearance of failure. 



But that for whicli the agriculture of Scotland is 

 most eminently indebted to Mr. Dawson, is the 

 culture of turnips. Before his time, this valuable 

 root, the foundation of all good husbandry on dry 

 soils, Jiad been introduced'by proprietors both in 

 the east and west of Scotland ; but it had made 

 very little progress, and produced no improvement 

 in the general stale of agriculture, even in what 

 were then considered the best cultivated counties. 

 The farmers of those times, like the lower classes 

 of the tenantry at present, had an insuperable 

 aversion to every innovation on their established 

 routine ; and viewed the attempts of proprietors, 

 without the least inclination to imitate them. But 

 when Mr. Dawson, himself a rent-paying farmer, 

 cultivated turnips upon an extensive scale, his 



* Douglas's Survey of Roxburghshire, p. 135. 

 t Survey of Roxburghshire, p. 131, 



practice began to be followed by some of hl.g 

 neighbors ; and lioin his example, and by means 

 of the workmen whom he trained, the present 

 most approved mode of cullivaling turni[ s gradu- 

 ally spread over all the south-eastern counties. 



Mr. Dawson began the cultivation of turnips at 

 his entry to Frogden farm ; but is understood that 

 they were raised in the broadcast manner till 17G3, 

 when he adopted the praciice of drilling. The 

 first drills v.'ere formea by laying two ilirrow-sliccs 

 together, loiiving a space untouched between each 

 drill ; and this firm ground was afterwards raised 

 by a plough that followed; so that every drill or 

 ridgelet consisted of four furrows laid together, in- 

 stead of two, as at present. Mr. D. himself, when 

 this mode was first tried, held the plough that 

 formed the two-finrow ridgelets ; and was follow- 

 ed by hi& best ploughman, who cleaved out the 

 interval that was leftbetween them. At this time, 

 though two-horse ploughs were sometimes used, 

 and always by Mr. Dawson, a driver was con- 

 stantly employed to guide the horses; but in the 

 afternoon of the very first day, a trial was made to 

 dispense with the driver when forming the first 

 ridgelets or ft^erings; and so evident were the ad- 

 vantages of the ploughman himself directinfr the 

 horses, t!uit very soon alierwards all the drivers 

 were dimissed. " Mr. James M'Dougal, now ten- 

 ant in the parish of Dinton, in Tweeddale, was 

 the first ploughman in Scotland, that ever drew a 

 straight furrow with two horses without a driver, 

 and was the first person whom Mr. Dawson em- 

 ployed to form the ti.irnip drills in the way just 

 mentioned. The breadth of the drills was at first 

 3 feet, but after the land was once thoroughly 

 cleaned, so great a breadlh was found unnecessa- 

 ry, and they were accordingly reduced to the pre- 

 sent breadth of 30 or 27 inches. The extent of 

 his turnip crop was usually about 100 acres yearly. 

 At first they were consuaied mostly by cattle, 

 which were sold throughout the winter and spring, 

 for many years chiefly in Edinburgh market. At 

 this time very few cattle were fattened in Scotland 

 after the grass season ; and the profits of this and 

 other branches of Mr. Dawson's management 

 were accordingly considerable. Thus, the pre- 

 dictions of his ruin, which were freely hazarded 

 by his neighbors, were soon succeeded by an irre- 

 sistible conviction of the superiority of his system, 

 and by the inutation of those practices which were 

 at first very generally ridiculed. Sometiuje after, 

 however, Mr. Dawson being satisfied of the 

 great benefit which the land received from the 

 turnips being eaten on the ground by sheep, gave 

 up the fattening of cattle ; anel his whole turnijis, 

 latterh^, were allotted to sheep alone, with the ex- 

 ception of a small portion carried to his straw-yard 

 cattle, to convert the straw into manure. 



Mr. Dawson, for several years after his entry 

 to Frogden, adopted what was called the Norfolk 

 rotation, one-half of his arable land being under 

 corn, and the other half under clover and turnips, 

 in equal proportions. But he soon found that his 

 soil was too weak for this constant tillage ; and 

 that it was necessary, in order to ensure abiuidant 

 crops, that his clover division shouKI be left in pas- 

 ture lor three years or more. This course he ever 

 aflerwards persevered in, and all his crops were ac- 

 cordingly most luxurient and productive. 



The success which was the just, reward of Mr. 

 Dawson's judicious and s])irited management, in- 



