1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



359 



cup of villainous wliisl<ey, and acknowledge them 

 as equals. These are the characters (would you 

 believe it) that are most ashamed ol' honorable 

 labor. 



I. R. 



A PRECOCIOUS HEIFER. 



To the Editor ol" the Fanners' Register. 



24ih Jane, 1836. 

 * * * I cannot lose this op- 



portunity of informing you of a singular fact which 

 happened in the vicinity of Hampton very lately. 

 Capt. Spencer Drummond has a heifer of the Dur- 

 ham stock, only fourteen months old, which has a 

 calf about a fortnight old, and is a much fii;er call 

 than we commonly meet with in this neighbor- 

 hood, or in yours. I mention this because I con- 

 sider it unprecedented. 



ACCOUJiT OF THE IvATE ROBERT BARCT^AY, 

 ESQ. OF URY, A CELEBRATED AGRICULTU- 

 RIST. 



Extracted from Mr. Robertson's Agricultural Survej' of Kiii- 

 cai-diueshire. 



But the man who exerted himself most for the 

 improvement of the country ; the man whose la- 

 bors in agriculture were the most strenuous and 

 well conducted ; and whose example had the most 

 prevalent and most extensive influence, was the 

 late Mr. Ikirclay of l^ry. His, indeed, were no 

 common powers. Of the most athletic form of 

 body, endowed with the most ardent, energetic, 

 and comprehensive mind, he employed his great 

 talents as an agriculturist with the most unwearied 

 perseverance, and to the happiest and most bene- 

 ficial results. The subject which he had to work 

 upon and to improve, or rather to subdue, was of 

 the most obdurate nature, and to most people 

 would have been unconquerable. But he was not 

 of a nature to be intimidated. Difficulties tended 

 only to excite his activity; and, adhering tena- 

 ciously to his own preconceived and well adjusted 

 plans, he was ultimately successful. 



The estate of Ury, the chief subject of his im- 

 provements, lies on both sides of the water of 

 Covvie, and extends from Stonehaven, in a north- 

 westerly direction', for nearly five miles. The house 

 of Ury is situated about a mile and a half from 

 Stonehaven, on the north banks of the Cowie. 

 This rivulet, whose banks have been destined to 

 receive so much embellishment from the hands of 

 Mr. Barclay, is a small trouting stream, in gene- 

 ral of no great capacity ; but there are times 

 when the mountain torrents, from which it is 

 derived, come down so suddenly, and with so 

 much impetuosity, as to swell it, in some places, 

 more than twelve feet above its usual level. Hap- 

 pily, however, at Ury house, where this occurs, it 

 is confined within strong natural bulwarks of rock, 

 so as to prevent devastation. 



Mr. Barclay succeeded his father to this estate, 

 in the year 1760. At that time there was, except 

 a few old trees around the mansion house, scarce- 

 ly a single shrub of any value on the whole pro- 

 perty. The Cowie, which runs for above three 

 miles through the lands of Ury, had, in the lapse 

 of ages, worn itself a deep channel ; the land on 

 either hand shelving towards it, in an angle more 



or less acute, in proportion as the soil was more 

 or less adhesive. In general, through the whole ex- 

 tent of this course, springs of water fi-om the cir- 

 cumjacent grounds were continually oozing to the 

 banks, and forming into marshes and quagmires, 

 which from time to time burst, and were precipita- 

 ted, by land slips, into the river. Thus, every year 

 the banks were becoming wider, by the breaking 

 down from the overhanging braes of some new 

 piece of land, to be slippecl, in its turn, into the 

 stream, which, beingperiodically flooded, swept the 

 whole into the sea. The only product of these banks 

 was a lew natural alders, of no value whatever, 

 and a coarse kind of aquatic herbage, to which cat- 

 tle had hardly any access, and on which, if they 

 had, they would scarcely have fed. 



The arable land was divided into a number of 

 small farms, each having a right of pasturage on 

 the contiguous hills. The tillage was superficially 

 perlbrmed with very imperfect imjilenients. Al- 

 most every field was incumbered with obstructions 

 of one kind or other — such as, pools of stagnant 

 water — quagmires, where the cattle were ever in 

 danger of losing their lives — great baulks of un- 

 ploughed land between the ridges — but, above all, 

 stones abounded, not merely on the surface, but 

 through the whole depth of the soil. There were 

 no enclosures.; no lime was used as a manure ; 

 and the only crops were bear and oats. There 

 was no cart nor wheel-carriage of any kind ; 

 nor was there even a road. In short, no place at 

 that titne abounded more in the evils attending the 

 ancient system, nor enjoyed fewer of the advan- 

 tases of modern husbandry, than the lands of 

 UFy. 



Mr. Barclay, who had acquired his ideas of ag- 

 riculture on the f(3rtile plains of Norfolk, could ill 

 brook a state of husbandry like this. So soon, 

 therfore, as he succeeded to the estate, he set 

 about its improvement in a style which soon ap- 

 peared to be neither superficial nor fleeting, but, to 

 the utmost degree, radical and permanent. For 

 this purpose, in addition to the lands that were at 

 all times in the hands of the family, he took into 

 his own management all the fi^trms in the vicinity 

 of the mansion, as the leases expired. And as 

 none of them were of long endurance, he had, 

 in the course of about 30 years, improved most 

 thoroughly 903 acres of arable land, besides plant- 

 ing from 900 to 1000 acres with wood. Of the 

 above quantity of arable land, there were original- 

 ly about 300 acres, which were altogether either 

 marsh or heath. Of the remaining 600, which 

 were let to tenants, about one-fourth part, or 1^0 

 acres, consisted of baulks, wastes, marshes, and 

 pools, interspersed through every field ; the quan- 

 tity in actual tillage never having exceeded 450 

 acres. So that, on the whole, Mr. Barclay 

 has meliorated about 450 acres, and brought 

 them, from a very imperfect, to the most cor- 

 rect state of culture ; and improved, fi-om a state 

 originally of the most barren and forbidding 

 appearance, about 450 acres more, which are now 

 in a high degree of fertility. 



The means by which all this has been accom- 

 plished, will fcorm the subject of the following in- 

 vestigation, and fall to be related under these dif- 

 ferent heads. 1. Draining. 2. Trench-plough- 

 ing. 3. Removal and disposal of stones. 4. Ap- 

 plication of lime. 5. Enclosing. And, 6. Rota- 

 lion of crops. Plantations will form the subject 



