362 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 6 



varying as the exigency of the case required. In 1 

 like manner, liis successor, vvlio inherits a goodly 

 portion of his lather's ardor and energy of mind, 

 had in one year, laiely, as much land under a 

 course of improvement, as to require an importa- 

 tion ot'GOOO bolls of lime-shells at once, 



5. Enclosing. — When Mr, Barclay succeeded 

 to Ury, there was not a single enclosure on the 

 whole estate. Indeed, in a country where artifi- 

 cial grasses are unknown, and where the only 

 pasture among the arable lands consisls of wasies, 

 baulks, and marshes, scattered in various direc- 

 tions, oi" every size, and in every kind of irregular 

 shape, among the different corn fields, enclosures 

 can niake no p^art of the s3"slem. In jiict, they 

 could be of no use ; for no beneficial a|)plicalion of 

 themcoidd be efi'ected, A country enclosed must 

 always be a country that, in other respects, lias 

 undergone some degree of improvement. 



Mr, Barclay, in the course of improving his 

 lands to the extent already stated, caused them to 

 be enclosed, field by field, as soon as the [)revious 

 meliorations had taken place. The whole estate 

 is divided into fifty-two enclosures of various sizes, 

 jrom fifteen to thirty-five acres, with only lour 

 fields below the first size, and five that are above 

 the second. The least field is of lour acres, and 

 the largest of sixty. The fences are almost all of 

 ditch and thorn hedge ; the one serving as a ready 

 conveyance to the water, and the other as a shel- 

 ter for the cattle. Very ftnv of the fences at Ury 

 are composed of stones, notwithstanding the su- 

 perabundance of that material, which lay origin- 

 ally at hand upon every ridge. But the stones, 

 there, were little calculated for building, being all 

 round, water-worn bullets, very inapplicable to a 

 wall of any description, either with or without 

 mortar. Most of the thorn fences have thriven 

 exceedingly. They are, in fact, too luxuriant, 

 some of them being little less than twenty ieet 

 high. This height gives excellent shelter to the 

 cattle; but has a bad effect upon the hedges 

 themselves, as the lower part, being too much 

 overshaded, becomes open and unfencible, and re- 

 quires much care, by the application of paling 

 from time to time, to keep the cattle properly con- 

 fined. It has been remarked, in general, on (his 

 branch of Mr. Barclay's meliorations, that his 

 fences have been more accurately constructed, and 

 more attention paid to the rearing of them, in tlie 

 latter part of his improvements, than in the begin- 

 ning — a circumstance which ought to be expect- 

 ed, as his hedgers would naturally become more 

 expert, and perform the operations more correctly, 

 the longer they were accustomed to the work. 



A circumstance in the construction of the gates 

 is worthy of notice, which is, that the horizontal 

 bars are set edgeways up and down, and thus af- 

 ford, by their position, the greatest strength Irom a 

 given weight of wood. This may seem so obvi- 

 ously the best mode, as to require no particular re- 

 mark ; yet it is astonishing how liltle such minu- 

 tiae are attended to. 



6. Rotation of Crops. — After the lands were 

 brought into tilth, and had a due application of 

 lime, Mr. Barclay's first crop was oats ; after 

 ■which began his general rotation of a (bur years' 

 course — 1. Turnips; 2. Barley; 3. Clover and 

 other grasses ; 4. Wheat ; then turnips as at first. 



Though wheat is stated as the last in the course, 

 1 shall begin with it— as part oi the culture be- 



stowed on it, in the course of the rotation, was 

 preparatory to the crop of turnips wdiich followed. 



IVheal. — This was sown on one furrow fiom lea 

 after the clover, the ground being previously 

 dunged at the rate of twelve three-horse cartloada 

 of well made farm-yard muck to the English acre. 

 I'he time of tillage was from the first of October 

 to the middle of November; the quaniiiy of seed 

 nine pecks to the acre, or about two and one third 

 Winchester bushels. The produce varied consi- 

 derably, according to the seasons. It was, in 

 some years, not more tht,n five bolls ; in olhei 

 years, it was ten : but on an average of yetirs, it 

 amounted to about six bolls and a half, or twenty- 

 seven and a half W inchesler bushels, from the 

 English acre. The measure here understood is 

 by the Stonehaven peas fiiiot of twenty-two Scots 

 pints ; being thus about three and a half per cent, 

 more than the Linlithgow standard. Mr. Bnrc- 

 la)\ by the time his improvements had extended 

 over most oi his lands, had, in some years, 130 

 acres in wheat. 



Turnips. — Mr. Barclay having applied the 

 dung to the preceding crop of wheat, left nothing 

 to be performed to the turnip land but the tillage 

 only. This gave him a great advantage in the 

 operations of that busy seed lime, in which celerity 

 in the progress is fi-equently more conducive to the 

 prosperity ol'the crop than any other circumstance. 



The ground, being brought into a complete state 

 of pulverization by fiequent ploughings, was 

 sown, in the first and second weeks of June, by 

 broadcast, at the rate of one pound weight of seed 

 to the acre. This lashion ol'sowing the seed, Mr. 

 Barclay had learned in Norfolk, and persevered in 

 it to the last ; and, fi'om the very abundant crops 

 which he always raised, it has become matter of 

 doubt with some people, whether to sow broad- 

 cast, or in drills, the now general practice, be the 

 most judicious and advantageous method. The 

 greatest objection, perhaps, to the broadcast sys- 

 tem, arises from the difficulty, in that mode of cul- 

 ture, ol' cleaning the land Irom weeds, as it admits 

 of aid, neither irom machinery, nor from the power 

 of animal draught, to assist in the operation : but 

 all must be perlbrmed by manual labor alone. 

 Mr. Barclay's land, however, was previously so 

 fully pulverized, and so ii'ee of all weeds, either 

 from root or by seed, that very little hoeing was 

 required. The only thing almost to be done, in 

 his fields, was to set off the turni|)s, by thinning, 

 to a proper distance; a work, indeed, that requir- 

 ed no little dexterity. Mr. Barclay, however, had 

 his people so well trained to this nice operation 

 (in which he was remarkably expert himself",) 

 that they could, each of them, go over half an 

 acre in a day; so that, although he sometimes 

 had 130 acres in turnips, the work of thinning, 

 which was constantly done by tlie hoe, was al- 

 ways accom|)lislied in due season. The crop, in 

 consequence of thus meeting with no neglect, pros- 

 pered exceedingly; and the plants set off by three 

 difierent operations — first at three, then at six, and 

 lastly at twelve inches distance, turnip lioin tur- 

 nip — soon filled the whole surftrce, and grew to be 

 a crop of irom thirty to Ibrty-five tons weight the 

 English acre. The crop would indeed sometimes 

 exceed the last, but never fell short of the first of 

 these (|uaniifies. This vast supply of green food 

 was consumed in two ways — in the iailening of 

 cattle, and the ieeding of sheep. 



