Additional Information. q\ 



Litile or no wheat is sown here, and barley always with one plougliiiig after 

 turnips, so that the expense per acre, of raising it, including seed, will be from 18^. 

 to 215. when it sells from 255. to 30^. per quarter. There is less alteration in this 

 expense, since 1790, than in any other article. Oats are the staple produce of 

 the county, and sown after pasture, clover, hay, and of late after turnips. On 

 lands brought into regular cultivation, the expense of raising an acre will be much 

 the same as of barley ; for though the seed be a little cheaper, the ploughing re- 

 requires more time, except after turnips. The difference between raising an acre 

 now and in 1790 will be about 15. ^d. owing to the rise of wages, and of labour. 

 New ground cannot be broken up, cleared of stones, dressed into ridges, manured 

 with marl or lime and sown, under £"5. per acre, in many situations not under £^10. 

 and at every intermediate cost, according to local circumstances. 



The most extraordinary advance is upon servant-maids wages, from 45,?. from 

 Whitsunday to Martinmas in 1790, to £4. 15^. and even £5. in 1804. 



MEARNS. 



'^ Mr. Robert Hay. 



You will see by comparing the money columns, that the present price of the 

 difference of labour is 93 per cent, higher (including the rise in rent) than it was 

 in 1790 ; and in looking into the price of the different species of grain, I find 

 that it is only about 7 per cent, higher now than then. From that statement, your 

 Lordship will be apt to conclude that the farmers must be losing money, when it 

 appears the balance is 86 per cent, against them in that period; but I am happy 

 to say it is not the case. Notwithstanding the expense of labour and rise of rentj 

 the additional taxes on account of the war, &c. &c. the farmers are at this time in 

 general more able to pay the additional expense of labour, taxes, &c. &c. than 

 they were at the former period. 



As what is above stated must at first sight appear contradictory to reason, I beg 

 leave to state to your L,ordship the five following causes, which will make the 

 argument consistent with itself: 



1st. Though this district of Scotland, I have taken under my view (which con- 

 tains, Lanarkshire, Airshire, Renfrewshire, Dumbartonshire, and Stirlingshire,) 

 cannot be called a breeding district, yet I am certain that, except one-fourth which 



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