AGRICULTURE IN SCOTLAND. 



43 



AGRICULTURE IN SCOTLAND. 



Those who believe that there is nothing to be learned out of our own country, 

 because England is, for the most part, enveloped in fog, and because there the 

 cattle feed on turnips, and in Scotland the men eat oatmeal stir-about, need not 

 read the following ; but those may who believe it useful to know what is deemed 

 and uniformly obtained as " a good average crop" to the acre, in, perhaps, the 

 best cultivated region in the world. The words in Italics were not so in the 

 London Monthly Magazine (for April) from which we take this communication. 

 Those lines were underscored by us to show their correspondence with what 

 we have been insisting on, and in which we have again and again implored the 

 aid of the general press of our country. 



For our part, we are tired of reading accounts of big crops and fat hogs and 

 bullocks, from year to year, but neither bigger nor fatter than we have had them 

 for thirty years. Let all unite in procuring for those who are to be agriculturists 

 an ediicatio7i which shall reveal to them ihe principles, the knowledge of which 

 will substitute in their pursuit uniform success for accidental results. In the 

 practice of Agriculture, as in the practice of medicine, let us aim to have our 

 sons become physicians instead of being quacks. In sickness both may be 

 attentive — both may be kind ; but which would we soonest call in, in case of 

 serious illness ? Ignorant men often think themselves the wisest, and those who 

 are too lazy to seek knowledge would dissuade others, as the fox who lost his 

 tail in the trap would persuade his companions that nothing was so convenient 

 and comely as a short tail. 



If agricultural education through the country vv'ere as thorough as military ed- 

 ucation is at West Point — and half the expenditure for our army in time of peace 

 would make it so — Maryland and Virginia might be made, like the Lothians in 

 Scotland, to average 40 bushels of wheat, 56 of barley and 80 of oats, to the 

 acre. Why should they not ? 



To the Editor of the Western Times : 



Sir : A few weeks since I troubled you 

 with an account of the method adopted iu 

 the southern counties of Scotland, of paying 

 farm-laborers, &-c. ; therefore have again 

 taken the liberty of trespassing on your Vcdu- 

 able colunms, by giving your agricultural 

 readers some idea of the manner in which 

 liirming openitions are conducted in the Lo- 

 thians of Scothuid or Counties of Hadding- 

 ton, Edinburgh and Linlithgow. I shall not 

 enter miimtely into details ; those who wish 

 to be more fully actjuaiuted with Scotch farm- 

 ing should visit the country ; and whether 

 they do so ou a tt>ur of profit or amusement, 

 they will be most amply repaid. 



The Lothian farms consist each of from 

 200 to .";00 Scotch acres, the Scotch acre be- 

 ing one-fourth larger than the English statute 

 acre, therefi^re I shall limit my remarks to 

 the current acre of the Lothians. A farm of 

 300 to 500 acres is by common consent the 

 utmost wliich one farmer is thought capable 



(91) 



of managing. The farai-buildings are small, 

 compact, and situated near the center of the 

 fann, and have always a steam-engine of sbc 

 or eight horse power for tlu-eshing and other 

 puri)oses. At the entrance of the farm-yai'd 

 is the dwelling of the gi-ieve, or bailiff — for 

 every farmer keeps a bailiff, who superin- 

 tends every tiling on the farm, and is cog- 

 nizant of everything that goes in or out of the 

 farm-buildings. I found the grieves univer- 

 sally clever, acute and sensible, and their 

 minds open to what was passing in the world 

 beyond the limits of their own immediate 

 neighborhood ; this speaks well of what edu- 

 cation has done for the fcasantry of this 

 fart of Scotland. The fanners themselves 

 are men of much superior education, man- 

 ners and stj'le of living to the possibly equal- 

 ly wealthy ones of the farming counties of 

 England; they are all of most hospitable 

 habits. Few of them are without a hand- 

 some phaeton for the use of the female mem- 

 bers of their family. One feature llirouglioul 



