136 CHANGES. 



year 1789 oflers premiums for essays on the manage- 

 ment of cattle-farms and the dairy, breeding stock, 

 etc., for the execution of improvements, and the 

 raising of crops." 31 



It was, therefore, the extension of the activity of 

 thought following the political measures of this time, 

 and introduced into the common life of Ayrshire, 

 which rendered possible these sudden changes. It 

 is seldom that human agency has effected so much in 

 the environment of a country, as took place with 

 such remarkable activity in Scotland : which changed 

 a waste into a garden ; which furnished such con- 

 trasts between what might have been seen by an 

 individual in the course of an ordinary life-time. 

 Although our accounts of the cattle of this district are 

 few, it cannot be doubted but that the appearance 

 and properties of the cattle and the dairy shared in 

 these contrasts, and the changes which were possible 

 in the tenancy of the land, were possible in a breed ; 

 and the changes which actually took place in the one, 

 must have produced a change in the other. 



81 Prize Essays, High. Soc. vol. 1. 



