8 Sir John Sinclair's Account of Moss Improvemenls 



this great and important attempt. They say, that Mr. Wilkinson might have bought, 

 at a cheaper rate, the best land in Lancashire. Perhaps so. But Mr. Wilkinson 

 must derive much higher satisfaction from the plan he has pursued. By so doing, 

 . he has furnished employment to numbers of industrious people : — he has raised great 

 quantities of food for man, where nothing, but for his exertions, would have been 

 produced : — he has shewn a noble example to his neighbours if they choose to follow 

 it; — and by augmenting the value of 500 acres of a barren waste, from 2d. to 305. 

 per acre and upwards, not merely for a few casual crops, but on the principles of 

 substantial and permanent improvement, he is justly entitled to be ranked among 

 the best friends to the agricultural interests of the country. 



London, z^tb Jpiil, 1805. 



APPENDIX. 



The Author of the above Paper has, for some time past, been carrying on some 

 very extensive improvements on mossy lands in the northern parts of Scodand, a 

 short account of which he drew up in September, 1804, which was printed in 

 some periodical publications, and which it may not be improper to annex, by 

 way of Appendix to the preceding Paper, together with some observations by an 

 intelligent and experienced farmer, Mr. James Anderson, of Ausdale, in Caithness, 

 on the Means of improving mossy Lands by means of Frost. 



On the Improvement of mossy Lands on the Estate of Langivell, in the County of 



Caithness, North Britain. 



I THINK it right to communicate to the public, with as little delay as possible, the 

 result of some extensive experiments on the improvement of mossy lands, which have 

 been carrying on in this neighbourhood, as it may furnish some hints to those who 

 rnay be desirous of bringing the vast tracts of that description of soil, with which 

 Scotland abounds, into a state of cultivation. 



It was in the year 1802 that I first attempted the system pursued in the fcnnv 



