li-^8 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



always amongst the first to adopt and make experiments of any new mode of culture, new implements of 

 husbandry, or new varieties of grain j and they practised draining, irrigation, fencing, and other improve- 

 ments, on the most correct principles. Their great attention to minutiiE, unremitting industry, and supe- 

 rior cultivation, not only raised a spirit of exertion and emulation in the surrounding neighbourhood, 

 but gained them such celebrity as first-rate breeders and agriculturists, that they had pupils from various 

 parts of the island, with whom they received considerable premiums, besides being amply paid for their 

 board and instruction. To all those acquirements, they added strict economy; the consequence of which 

 was a great accumulation of wealth, which they applied (as occasions offered) to increasing their farming 

 concerns ; and this to such an extent, that for several years they occupied farms to the amount of about 

 8000/. a year. The large capital which such extensive concerns required, applied with so much attention 

 and judgment, could not fail of producing the most lucrative effects. The result is, that, from a small original 

 capital, their respective families are now enjoying landed property to the amount of nearly 4000/. a year 

 each (besides a very large sum invested in farming), the well merited reward of unremitting industry 

 and extensive agricultural knowledge. In 1786, Mr. George Culley published his Observations on Live 

 Stock, which was the first treatise on the subject that attempted to describe the domesticated animals of 

 Britain, and the principles by which they may be improved. The great merits of this work are evinced 

 by the number of editions it has gone through. In 1793, Mr. G. Culley, in conjunction with Mr. Bailey 

 of Chillingham, drew up the Agricultural Reports for Durham and Northumberland, and in 1813 he 

 died at Fowberry Tower, the seat of his son, in the 79th year of his age. {Farmer's Mag. vol xiv. p. 274.) 



790. Merino sheep were first brought into England in 1788, when His Majesty procured 

 a small flock by way of Portugal. In 1791, another flock was imported from Spain. In 

 1804, when His Majesty's annual sales commenced, this race began to attract much notice. 

 Dr. Parry, of Bath, has crossed the Ryeland, or Herefordshire sheep, with the merinos, 

 and brought the wool of the fourth generation to a degree of fineness not excelled by that 

 of the pure merino itself; while the carcass, in which is the great defect of the merinos, 

 has been much improved. Lord Somerville, and many other gentlemen, have done them- 

 selves much honour by their attention to this race ; but it does not appear that the 

 climate of Britain, the rent of land, and the love of good mutton, admit of substituting 

 it for others of native origin. (^Encyc. Brit. art. Agr.) 



791. The agriculture of Scotland, as we have seen, was in a very depressed state at 

 the revolution, from political circumstances. It was not less so in point of professional 

 knowledge. Lord Kaimes, that excellent judge of mankind and sound agriculturist, 

 declares, in strong terms, that the tenantry of Scotland, at the end of the seventeenth and 

 beginning of the eighteenth century, were so benumbed with oppression or poverty, that 

 the most able instructor in husbandry would have made nothing of them. Fletcher of 

 Saltoun, who lived in the best part of Scotland, and in the end of the seventeenth century, 

 describes their situation as truly deplorable. 



792. John Cockburn, of Ormiston, East Lothian, a spirited individual, who rose at this 

 time, and to whom the agriculture of Scotland is much indebted, deserves to be men- 

 tioned. He was born in 1685, and succeeded to the family estate of Ormiston in 1714. 

 He saw that internal improvement could only be effected by forming and extending a 

 middle rank of society, and increasing their prosperity. In fact, as an able writer. Brown, 

 the founder of the Farmer's Magazine, has remarked, " the middling ranks are the 

 strength and support of every nation." In former times, what we now call middling 

 classes were not known, or at least little known in Scotland, where the feudal system 

 reigned longer than in England. After trade was introduced, and agriculture improved, 

 the feudal system was necessarily overturned ; and proprietors, like other men, began to 

 be estimated according to their respective merits, vs^ithout receiving support from the ad- 

 ventitious circumstances under which they were placed. 



793. In 1723, a number of landholders, at the instigation of Mr. Cockburn, formed 

 themselves into a Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland. The 

 Earl of Stair, one of their most active members, is said to have been the first who culti- 

 vated turnips in that country. This society exerted itself in a very laudable manner, 

 and apparently with considerable success, in introducing cultivated herbage and turnips, 

 as well as in improving on the foraier methods of culture : but there is reason to 

 believe, that the influence of the example of its members did not extend to the common 

 tenantry, who are always unwilling to adopt the practices of those who are placed in a 

 higher rank, and supposed to cultivate land for pleasure, rather than profit. Though 

 this society, the earliest in the united kingdom, soon counted upwards of three hundred 

 members, it existed little more than twenty years. Maxwell delivered lectures on agri- 

 culture for one or two sessions at Edinburgh, which, from the specimens he has left, 

 ought to have been encouraged. 



794. Draining, enclosing, summer-fallowing ; sowing fax, hemp, rape, turnip, and grass 

 seeds ; planting cabbages after and potatoes with the plough, in fields of great extent, are 

 practices which were already introduced : and, according to the general opinion, more corn 

 was now grown where it was never known to grow before, than, perhaps, a sixth of all that 

 the kingdom used to produce at any former period. It is singular that though the prac- 

 tice of summer-fallowing seems to have prevailed in England since the time of the 

 Romans, yet it was neglected in Scotland till about the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century, when it was first practised by John Walker, tenant at Beanston, in East Lotliian. 

 The late Lord Milton considered this improvement of so much importance, that he was 



