78 FIELD AND FERN, 



They were giving prizes for barley or bigg of the 

 greatest weight ; they were guarding against smut in 

 wheat, and encouraging turnips in Orkney and Shet- 

 land, as well as sowing arable land with red clover 

 and rye-grass; and Mr. Boswell of Balmuto was 

 their Holker ambassador to see the drill system as 

 practised by Mr. Coke, and to report whether it or 

 broadcast answered best with barley, after a bare, 

 and a turnip fallow. Was it the reclaiming of land? 

 Sheep-drains were fostered, and prizes given for the 

 effective execution of not less than 6,000 roods, and 

 attention was drawn to the extirpation of ferns from 

 hill pastures. The blowing sand was combatted in 

 all the Northern Isles, and one of the first gold 

 medals was given to Mr. Drummond of Blair Drum- 

 mond, for " floating an extreme track of moss in 

 Perthshire, and settling one hundred people on it, 

 who in '92 had been compelled to leave the High- 

 lands on account of sheep-farming.^' 



Was it the improvement of implements or machi- 

 inery ? They were offering a premium for a steam 

 plough in 1837, which was competed for by Mr. 

 Heathcot, and they awarded it to Mr. John Fowler, 

 in 1857. Mr. Smith of Dcanston was always secure of 

 a trial from the Society, when something new in earth- 

 tormenting was evolved from that teeraing brain, and 

 so was BelFs reaping machine. Thanks to their 

 bounty, Andrew Meikle, the inventor of a thrashing 

 machine, was enabled to pass his later years in com- 

 fort ; but when watches and a revolving battery were 



