sect. III. THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 159 



gation of the course cannot be extended, with- 

 out injury to the tenant. The above plan is 

 judged to be in neither extreme. Whilst it 

 seems best for preserving and continuing the fer- 

 tility of the land, it, is so devised as to afford a- 

 bundant produce for securing the interest of the 

 tenant. 



3^/y, Another obvious advantage is, that a 

 farm under this course will always be able to 

 produce for itself a sufficient supply of dung. 

 This is surely of the greatest consequence, espe- 

 cially when the farm is so situated as to be un- 

 able to procure the necessary article in sufficient 

 quantity from the neighbourhood. Lime or 

 marie will not make up for the want of dung ; 

 and, therefore, if the farm cannot supply itself, 

 less must be kept in tillage, or, by a scanty sup- 

 ply of dung, the crops will fail, and the interest 

 of the farmer be injured. 



4//y, Another advantage resulting from this- 

 scheme is, that the farmer will have three stocks 

 to depend upon for the payment of his rent, and 

 the subsistence of his family, his grain, his cat- 

 tle, and his dairy. Any one of these may occa- 

 sionally fail ; but it will seldom, perhaps never, 

 happen, that they shall all fail together. 



To this plan it has been objected, that the pe- 

 riod of the rotation is so long, that the tenant 

 cannot go twice over it during the ordinary cur- 

 rency of leases. But this objection, if it has any 

 weight, operates, not against the plan, but against 

 the short endurance of the lease. If the scheme 

 be good, and conducive to the general improve- 

 ment of the soil, the short period of leases can 

 be no sufficient reason for rejecting it. The ce- 



