836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



361 



cultivator; but Mr. Barclny had it in abundance. 

 Tiie inequality in tiie surface ot' many of tlxe fields 

 of Ury is siill very apparent ; but it was much 

 more so before he dressed them in their present 

 form. In almost every field there were deep hol- 

 lows, which in the winter, or in rainy weather, 

 became pools, some larger and some less, of stag- 

 nated water. These did not owe their origin at 

 all to springs, but existed merely in consequence 

 ol" their situation, incumbent on an adhesive sub- 

 soil that admitted of no filtration. In the winter 

 they were always full, but grew less as the season 

 became drier ; and some of them, in the preva- 

 lence of the diought of suumier, became, through 

 evaporation alone, altoirclher dr\'. 



It is evident, that whatever might be the pro- 

 duce of coarse herbage that might occasionally 

 grow in these hollows, or by the margin of these 

 jiools, there could be no crop of grain raised from 

 them. But this was not adapted to Mr. Barclay's 

 ideas of the use of soil, and he resolved to rid him- 

 self of them at once. His method was this: — He 

 first caused a trench to be made, no matter to 

 what depth, till he laid them completely dry, and 

 thus got access to the soil at the bottom. This 

 eoil was generally of a considerable thickness, and 

 had been lacquired bv a gradual accumulation ot 

 the finer particles of soil (hat had been washed 

 down fi'oin the conterminous heights, and had 

 been renderetl of a still more fructifying nature from 

 the residuum of the vegetables which, from year 

 to year, had alternatelv grown up and deca3'ed 

 upon their margin. This was too valuable to be 

 lost. He iherelbre caused it to be cut out, and to 

 he either carted or wheeled out with a barrow, be- 

 yond the limits of the hollow. The next work 

 was to cast in stones from the contiguous fields, 

 and to fill it up, not merely for the space occupied 

 by the soil now taken out, but to as great a height 

 as the water was wont to stand in the winter sea- 

 son. The last operation was to carry back the ex- 

 cavated soil, and spread it upon the surliice of the 

 stones. Thus, a noxious pool was converted into 

 soil the most valuable in the field. I am credibly 

 informed, that, in many of these old pools, the 

 quantity of stones carted into them is upwards of 

 six feet in depth: and that (he number ot such in- 

 stances of improvement, from that exten* down- 

 wards to that of two or three feet ol' filling up, is 

 very considerable indeed. 



Aftei all, these three ways of disposing of the 

 stones, though they must have consumed a quan- 

 tity almost inconceivable, have not been able com- 

 pletely to swallow them up; for, so very nmch 

 did they abound originally, that many thousand 

 cart-loads are still to be seen, that were tumbled, 

 as the last resource, over the banks towards the 

 channel of the river. 



4. jlpplication of Lime. — After the various and 

 expensive operations ot draining, trench-plough- 

 ing, and removal of stones, immediately tbllowed 

 the application of lime. Previous to the era of 

 INIr. Barclay, the use of lime as a manure was, in 

 this county, very circumscribed, though not alto- 

 gether unknown in this respect; but, in these days, 

 its powers appear to have been overrated. This 

 may be inferred from the practice which then pre- 

 vailed, of sowing it over the surface by the hand 

 from a sheet, by which means, a iew bushels were 

 made to overspread an acre. The eti'ect which 

 this meagre sprinkling had upon the soil, is not ! 



Vol. rV-46 ° 



indeed stated ; but it could not have been consi- 

 derable. There is, however, more reason to ad- 

 mire than to despise, in this particular, the exer- 

 tions of those ancient husbandmen, when we re- 

 flect on the state of the roads at the time, by which 

 (he carriage of three bushels in a bag, on the back 

 of a horse, was a work of greater labor than now 

 to bring on a cart, three bolls. It maybe remark- 

 ed also, that the thin staple ol earth which they 

 had to manure, would require a proportional less 

 quantity to produce an effect. But, be (his as it 

 may, the soil tbrmed by Mr. Barclay, being so 

 much deeper than the general soil of the country, 

 required a more liberal allowance of lime, and he 

 gave it a more liberal allowance accordingly. He 

 never applied less, in any case, than forty bolls of 

 shells to the acre, but more generally from fifty to 

 seventy bolls ; so that the average may be justly 

 stated at sixty bolls to the English acre. In one 

 particular case. viz. in his garden, which he had 

 trenched to the depth of five feet, he applied no 

 less than at the rate of five hundred bolls to the 

 acre ; — a quantity probably more than enough to 

 saturate the whole mass; and, of course, a misap- 

 plication, so far as the excess might extend. The 

 boll here specified is what is called the water 

 measure (from being used on shipboard), or 

 Hionchaven barley measure, of 33 Scotch pints to 

 the firlot, or 132 to the boll.* 



This bountiful application of lime seems to have 

 had the desired efli^ct ; for, during the whole time 

 of Mr. Barclay's practice, which extended to a 

 period of 38 years, he never had occasion to apply 

 lime a second time, except in two instances, in 

 which, as the first application did not seem to operate 

 so powerfully as he expected, he repeated the dose, 

 i'he lime which Mr. Barclay generally made 

 use of, was imported at Stonehaven from Lord 

 Elgin's limeworks, at Charleston on the Frith of 

 Forth. Stonehaven may be about a mile and a 

 half, at an average, from the dilFerent fields to 

 which it was to be applied. This easy distance 

 of land-carriage was a favorable circutnstance to 

 his improvements, and almost the only favorable 

 one that attended them. The price of lime was, 

 at first, only Is. lid. the boll : it was afterwards 

 increased to 2s.; from which it rose, penny by pen- 

 ny, till it came to 2s. 5d., which was the highest 

 rate that Mr. Barclay had ever to pay. These all 

 seem moderate rates, when compared with 3s. 8d., 

 the present price (in 1807). But this is only a 

 seeming, not a real cheapness ; for if we compare 

 the dirt'erent prices cf lime with the prices of labor 

 or of grain, at the diU'erent periods, there can be 

 lidle doubt thut 23 pence in 1760 was fully equal 

 in value to 46 pence in the present 3'ear. 



As Mr. Barclay applied lime to 903 acres on 

 this estate, and limed about thirty acres a second 

 lime, and ail at the rate of 60 bolls an acre, on an 

 average, the quantity altogether thus made use of 

 will be found to amount to 55,780 bolls ; and this, 

 at 2s, 2d., (he metliiim rate of price per boll, will 

 amount to 6064/. 10s. as the primecost of the lime. 

 JMr. Barclay's importation of lime was not, eve- 

 ry year, in equal quantities. In some years it did 

 not" exceed 1000 bolls; in other years there were 

 more than 2000 imported ; and, one year, the im- 

 portation is stated at 4000 and upwards, — thus 



* The boll is rather more than 4 bushels. See Scot- 

 tish measures p. 93, vol 1. of Far. Reg. — Ed. 



