96 HOUND AND HORN 



men ; few if any of you have seen the span of years, 

 or experienced the variety of seasons, or weathered 

 the severity of storms, that I have during the period 

 of my occupancy of the farm of Buccleuch ; and few 

 can make the boast which I can, viz. that for two long 

 leases, or rather for thirty-nine years, I have never 

 missed paying my rent punctually and in person. 



** I can only touch on some few of the changed con- 

 ditions during that period. First of all, the system 

 and practice of husbandry is kept up to a high 

 standard, and the most is got out of the land that 

 it will yield ; but this only with the expenditure of 

 much capital, with the exercise of much skill, and 

 through the results of oft-repeated experience. But 

 there has been a marked decrease in value of pro- 

 duce of all kinds, the returns from all classes of farms 

 showing a decided falling off from the average of pre- 

 ceding years. This decrease has been in greater con- 

 trast in the case of secondary and inferior produce 

 (good articles, whether grain or live stock, never feel 

 the fall so much as inferior articles), and this would 

 seem to point to the importance of keeping our land 

 in good heart so as to grow the best possible crops, 

 and to breed and feed only the best possible animals. 



''Accompanying the fall in prices, we have had to 

 pay more for our working expenses, and for nothing 

 so much as labour. The introduction of machines 

 has done away with some of the extra labour formerly 

 employed for harvesting and at odd times, and that 

 has to some extent caused people to move into the 

 towns ; but one of the real and main causes of rural 

 depopulation lies in the restless spirit of the age, and 

 the desire of the people themselves. I would counsel 



