12 MR. hazen's address. 



ihe Island might well nigh be doubled, without any greater pro- 

 proportional expense being incurred in the production.* 



Previous to 1763 no improvements had been made in the 

 agriculture of Scotland. There was no rotation ofcrops ; fallows 

 were unknown ; the process and the implements were alike 

 wretched ; neither turnips, clover or potatoes had been so much 

 as heard of, but corn followed corn in unbroken succession.! 

 To introduce the new systems, which have been attended with so 

 much improvement, has been the \Vork of a few names as well 

 entitled to the men)ory and honors of posterity, as any that are 

 borne on the pages of history. It will be the dawn of a brighter 

 day to this interest, when more adequate justice is done by pub- 

 lic opinion to the merits and services of its benefactors. The 

 title of Father of Scottish Agriculture, conferred on William 

 Dawson, was an expression of public gratitude scarcely less hon- 

 orable to his countrymen than to him. By the system of cul- 

 ture whVch he introduced, the production has grown to be twelve 

 times greater than formerly, while the fertility of the soil is kept 

 up with a proportionate increase of profits. 



We thus see that in Great Britain agriculli^ has furnished 

 hands for the labors of manufactures, and has then run with 

 ihem an equal race. Tlrere manufactures have been multiply- 

 ing, and villages springing into existence in the same manner as 

 in our own vicinity. The land has there been tasked to equal 

 the produce to the demands, however large they might be. 

 Something approaching to the same effect may here be witness- 

 ed in the immediate neighborhood of manuflicturing settlement.". 

 They have encouraged fanning by creating a demand, and pro- 

 viding a ready market for its products. Still even in these dis- 

 tricts the supply is very deficient and the prices high. 1( hith- 

 erto manufactures have nourished agriculture, it cannot be told 

 iiow soon manufactures may seek a return of the benefit, in the 

 •form of a more abundant and cheaper supply. 



The example of England teatihes what may be effected by 



Ediiiibiffgh Review, No. 126. + Edinburgh iicview. 



