Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF MIDLOTHIAN. 



1179 



enabled to aflbrd more rent ; and in fact gUe more than an 

 actual farmer, whose sole deveadence is uoon husbandry) is 

 able to pav ; while their exertions in agriculture, though in 

 gTeral founded on good principles, commonly end in disap- 

 pointment to themselves, fur want of that unceasing attention 

 which is indispensable to good cultivation, but which their 

 other avocations prevent them from bestowing." 



The moor liind farmers, as if in conformity to the soil, which 

 lias undergone very little melioration, and to the climate, which 

 is natural Iv severe, seem still to retain a strong cast of the man- 

 ners of their forefathers, and to live and toil under the same 

 uncomfortable circumstances. Their houses are damp, smoky, 

 and diminutive; their fare simple and limited; and their 

 labours hard and even oppressive. But they have days of re- 

 laxation, in which they enjoy themselves at fairs and markets; 

 their marriage festivities are almost boundless, and their 

 funerals are jwmpous and ostentatious. Religion is maintained 

 in all the austerity of Oliver Cromwell and the covenant. 



These farmers are the only ones in a county containing a 

 capital town, who are likelv to better th=ir condition. Being 

 inurtd to the practice of the most rigid economy, they will, 

 when translated to a warmer climate and more genial soil, very 

 forcibly feel a melioration in their circumstances ; and if tliey 

 have fortitude enough (as the first race of them generally will) 

 to persevere in their original habits of frugality, they may, by 

 dint of mere saving, at the rate, perhaps, of two and a half per 

 cent yeaYly on their capital, accumulate, in a lifetime, a sum 

 that may be esteemed considerable. But this thriving state 

 will only last during the first generation. Their sons ha- 

 bituated in time to an easier mode of life, will, amid the great 

 luxury with which they are surrounded, lose their primitive 

 simplicity of manners, and with it the faculty of saving, on 

 which alone their prosperity deiiends. 



4. Imple7nents. 



Old Scotch plough, long and he^vy, and drawn by four or 

 six horses or oxen, and till about 1768, when Drs. Grieve and 

 Carlisle, clergymen, tritd wheel ploughs of a lighter construc- 

 tion, which they had seen in use in Dalkeith Park. Soon 

 afterwards Small's improved plough came into notice. Ho- 

 bertson mentions that the olden race of farmers were very 

 generally their own p'ough-wrights, and makers of their own 

 implements of husbandry, with very little assistance from the 

 professional mechanic. These implements were indeed made 

 in a very clumsy manner, but otherwise strong and hamly 

 enough. Thev had all of them a set of wright's tools for the 

 purpose. {Rural RecoUections, p. 84.) The late Mr. Thomas 

 Shiells, at Grothill, near Edinburgh, made with his own hands 

 the first winnowing machine used in the Lothians, from a 

 model of one imported from Holland. {Ibid. 148.) 



.5. EnclQsing. 



No commons or common-fields. Hedges first planted about 

 1760. 



6. Arable Land. 



When ridges are raised high, they should not be laid south 

 and north, as the crop on the east side of such ridge is com- 

 monly found very defective. The same thing holds in the 

 county of Lancaster. 



7. Grass. 



\'ery little permanent grass exclusive of the hills and moor- 

 lands. Alluvial lands on the banks of streams so liable to 

 immense floods, bringing down soil, &c. that if in grass it 

 would often be much injured ; considered therefore more 

 profit .ble to keep them in corn. There is some very pro- 

 ductive meadow land near Edinburgh, irrigated by the water 

 which flows from town, carrying along with it night-soil, &c. 

 The produce of twelve or fifteen acres of this meadow so'd in 

 1826 at an average of 42/. per acre ; part of it reached nearly 

 CO/., the purchaser cutting and carrying it off, and incurring 

 all other charges. This, of course, is only for one summer, hut 

 it will yield four or five cuttings during that seaon, or rather 

 between the end of spring and the beginning of winter. 



8. Gardens and Orchards. 



Henry Prentice, who died about 1786, was the first who cul- 

 tivated white peas, potatoes, turnips, and sundry other culi- 

 nary plants, on an extensive scale, for the Edinburgh market, 

 about the year 1746. Before that period, the supply was li- 

 mited to what could be carried in baskets ; his cart being the 

 first that appeared with kitchen stuff in the streets. He even 

 r.-;ised encumbers in the fields ; but his cart-load of these met 

 with so little sale, as not to encourage a repetition. Though 

 he died a pensioner on the poor's funds of the Canongate, his 

 name deserves to be noticed with respect, not only as having 

 introduced several of our best vegetables into cultivation, but 

 from his practice as a cultivator, which was spirited and judi- 

 cious, however little it turned out to his own account. 



Strarrberrics About 200 acres on the banks of the Esk, and 

 chiefly near Roslin. Crop continued on the same ground 

 without end ; but digging down and replanting every fourth 

 year. To change every twenty or thirty years esteemed a better 

 practice. Lands in nursery 200 acres. Mawer's hothouses at 

 Dairy, and hotwalls of his invention, figured and described. 

 The hothouses heated by steam. Mawer was a Lancishire 

 man, and formerly gardener and steward to the Earl of Aber- 

 com. He was an excellent gardener and farmer ; a man of 

 very general information, and highly respected. He was exten- 

 sively emjiloyed as a layer out of gardens and roads, and had 

 the general "charge of the gardening and tree department on 

 some gentlemen's estates. The compiler of this Encyclopedia 



was bis pupil, amanuensis, and draughtsman for the three 



years preceding his ' ' . . . - 



apoplexy in 1800, 



death, which happened suddenly from 



9. Woods and Plantations. 



About 5000 acres so occupied, the greatest part artificial, and 



Slanted since 17.")0. Hedgerow trees never come to any thing 

 )r want of shelter ; belts do no good unless twenty row's thick 

 at least. 



10. Wastes. 



None : but extensive tracts very poor. 



11. Improvements. 



Draining well understood and CTtensively practised. Johnston, 

 who wrote an account of Ekington's mode of draining, a na- 

 tive of the county. Edinburgh and Leith aiford about 40,000 

 cubic yards of street dung annually, which is commonly laid 

 on the lands within five miles of town. Horse dung, however, 

 carried twelve miles or further. 



More need for weeding on the arable lands of this county than 

 in those of any other in Scotland ; supposed from more town 

 manure being used. The town manure contains the seeds 

 brought in from the country in hay and straw, which are of 

 various kinds; but chiefly wild mustard, wild radish, dock, 

 thistle, poppy, couch-grass, &c. 



12. Live Stock. 



Little attention was formerly paid to this department ; but 

 it is now conducted on improved principles. A great many 

 cows are kept in Edinburgh, and well kept as well as judi- 

 ciously selected. See the art. Dairy in Hup. to E'lcy. Brit. 

 a.n. Agriculture. Galloway and Ayrshire cows preferred, and 

 Clvdesdale horses. Some buflaloes of the Mysore variety in- 

 troduced by Col. Murray : not supposed to turn to any advan- 

 ta"e, either as milkers, or for work, or the butcher, but form a 

 variety in parks. Lord Morton subsequently introduced the 

 quagga (i'quus Qudgga) on his park at Morton Hall for the 

 same purpose. Bees a very popular species of Uve stock with 

 all classes. 



13. Rural Economy. ^ ^, ^ ^ , 

 Well suppUed with work-people from the highlands and Ire- 

 laud. With the exception of some farm servants in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of Edinburgh, they are, in genefal, orderly and 

 moral. Children taught in the parih schools ; reading at one 

 shilling and four-pence, writing and arithmetic at two sniUings 

 and sixpence per quarter ; Latin, &c. in proporUon. 1 he cot- 

 ta-es of ploughmen consist generally of two rooms on the 

 ground floor, with a pigstye, and 100 square yards, or upwards, 

 of garden ground. The furniture consists of two beds, a tew 

 chairs or stools, table, chest of drawers, clothes-press, &c. ; 

 and they are all ambitious of having a time-piece, it it were 

 onlv a cuckoo clock. The whole may be worth from ten to 

 twelve pounds. The Sunday's dress of a young ploughman 

 consists generally of a coat of blue cloth, at five shillings and 

 sixpence the yard; velveret vest, corduroy brMches, white 

 cotton stockings, calf-skin shoes with black silk shoe-knots, 

 shirt with ruffles at the breast, white muslin fringed cravat, 

 and a hat worth eight or ten shillings. The shoe-knots ^d 

 ruffles are, indeed, rather uncommon, but all the oper arti- 

 cles are very much in use. They make a very good appear- 

 ance, and even pay attention to the fashion. In their ft>pd th^ 

 still live in much the same simple way as their loretatners. 

 Oatmeal forms the basis, or principal part of their sustenance. 

 They have it regularly to breakfast and to supper, made into 

 pottage, which they eat with a small allowance of butter-niilk. 

 At dinner they eat it in bread, in addition to their kale, a kmd 

 of soup made of barlev -broth, intermixed with greens and pot- 

 herbs. To this they add at times potatoes, and fash ot "ind- 

 ent kinds ; seldom wheat bread, anfi still more Ff 'elj ^^"tehert 

 meat. This mode of Uving, in which, although with no great 

 variety, there is always abundance of food, seems to be very 

 conformable to the natural constitution of the people, as they 

 are found to go through their labour without fee"f>g,*5- 

 selves oppressed, and enjoy a state of health which is very 

 seldom interrupted. At an average, they are not above two 

 davs sick in a year. < r-,-, 



What is above stated refers chiefly to the condition of farm 

 servants, who are hired by the year, and whose V_f'nl'fl em- 

 ployment is about the horses, in the fields, or on '' road- 

 There is, however, another class of work-people attached to a 

 farm, who are hired by the day, or by the week, and whM^' 

 employment is usually in jobbing about the bams, the fences, 

 or the water furrows. These are called labourers, and .m the r 

 circumstances and mode of living there is a considerable 

 diflerence between them and the others. , . . _ ,,. .. , 



Although their wages are in gene, al at a higher "te than 

 the hired servants, yet they make not such a good appearance 

 in their dress, nor are so well seen to in their victuals, as these. 

 Thev are generally, as we term it,/rom hand to mouth, always 



arise principally from getting their 

 om week to week, which le.;ds thera 



want ; which 



whole wages in money from 



continually to market, providing their daily sustenance; a j 

 vince left generallv to the charge of their wives, who, from 

 constant ninning about, get into habits of idleness and want 

 of attention to that good housewifery which is the glory of a. 

 decent cottager's wife. ,, ,.., 



The quantity of coal used by the common labourers is about 

 three fourths of a ton for each person in the family yearly, by 

 farmers about two tons, and in families of the highest rank 

 about six tons. The price at the pit is from five si iling* 

 to seven and sixpence the ton, according to its vicinity to 



^Such'w^; the state of things in 1795. Now (1830), at the 

 distance of five and thirty years, they are doubtUss materially 

 altered. The use of wheaten bread is general ; butcher s meat 

 much more common, and cottages more commodious. 



14. Political Economy. , . r .r. 



Roads so bad previously to 1714, that wheel carriages for the 

 purposes of agriculture were very little used ; even till 1 / 00 

 hav and straw carried to Edinburgh on horseback, and the 

 dung taken back the same way in bags. Sledges a good deal 

 employed in those times : they are mentioned in the turnpike 

 act of '1751, but unnoHced in that of 1755, which shows they 

 had been di>used ; a proof of the extraordinary progress of 

 improvement when once commenced, in consequence of a 

 demand or desire for it. Forced improvement goes on very 

 differentiy. The roads of this county are now under one of 

 the M'Adam familv. Some recent canals and rail-roads have 

 lieen formed. Oneof the most ""Port^nV'^Prr^f^jrp^^lw 

 Union Canal from Edinburgh to the Forth and Clvde Canal at 

 Falkirk, which has added greatly to the value of property qn 

 parh iiide of its line. See Edinburghshire, and Canal, in ftup. 

 To Ec. Bwf.tnd ako Robertson's "kur./ Recollection.. GU^. 

 ropes, and soap the chief manufactures. Iron works at Cra- 

 mond, where nails, spades, files, &c. are extensively febncated- 

 .Several paper mills, flour mills, and various mmor manufac- 

 tories and works for local consumption. 

 \5. Obstacles to Improve.jnent. 



Illiberality of landlords, game, thirlage, the dogs of Edin- 

 burgh, who greatly harass the sheep, the chief obstacles. 



16. Miscellaneous Observations. 



The Farmers' Society of Dalkeith, for the prosecution of 

 thieves and encouragement of agriculture, instituted in 1760, 

 still exists, and has done much gootl. It is composed almost 

 entirely of practical farmer*. Small's plough, the winnowmjc 



