StCt. I. THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 237 



execution. Under the management of such per- 

 sons, many mistakes will readily be committed, 

 and much money misapplied. The expence 

 and want of success will discourage them, and 

 induce them to abandon the enterprize. Be- 

 sides, in many cases, the circumstances of the 

 occupant, or the shortness of his lease, may be 

 such as to render it prudent not to hazard the 

 attempt. 



In order, then, to carry this so necessary piece 

 of improvement most speedily and most ef- 

 fectually into execution, instead of putting the 

 plan and directions into the hands of the farmers, 

 and leaving it to them to judge whether or not, 

 or in what manner, they shall execute it ; I am 

 humbly of opinion that the proprietors should 

 take the business wholly upon themselves, and 

 employ men of known skill and experience to 

 perform the work ; bearing the whole expence 

 in the first instance, at the same time having 

 recourse upon the tenant by a per-centage on the 

 money so expended, more or less, in proportion 

 to the remainder of his lease, and the advantage 

 he may be supposed to reap during that period. 

 In order to lessen the expence as much as pos- 

 sible, it might be proper, on all farms abounding 

 with stones, to oblige the tenants, in the course 

 of dressing and cleaning their fields, to lay down 

 all the stones they collect, if not needed for in- 

 closing, but, if needed for inclosing, all that 

 are small and unlit for that purpose, at the place 

 where the drains are to be made. 



To this proposal surely neither party can 

 reasonably object. The proprietors, having the 

 chief interest, ought certainly to be at the ex- 



