CHAPTERII. 



AGRICULTURE IN SCOTLAND— 1791-1796. 



Before proceeding to notice the efforts of the Highland 

 Society in the promotion of improvement, it seems fitting 

 to furnish some account of the agricultural condition of 

 Scotland about the time the Society began its active opera- 

 tions. Materials for a view of the state of the country at 

 this period are afforded by two sources. One is the Old 

 Statistical Account of Scotland, in twenty-one volumes, 

 published between the years 1791 and 1796 ; and the other 

 consists of official reports made to the Board of Agriculture 

 in the years 1794 and 1795. These dates are a few years 

 later than the origin of the Society, but it may be fairly 

 assumed that the condition of the country had not greatly 

 changed in the interval. The information embodied in this 

 chapter is mainly drawn from the two sources indicated, 

 but we have collated it with reports on the Agriculture 

 of Scotland, furnished by Mr Andrew Wight, farmer at 

 Ormiston, East Lothian, to the Commissioners on the 

 Annexed Estates, from surveys undertaken by him 

 between the years 1775 and 1782.* We arrange the 

 information under counties, and may note that the 

 testing circumstances of the state of agriculture of the 

 time were chiefly the prevalence of sown grasses, the 

 cultivation of the turnip, the character of the live stock, 

 and the kind of implements in use on the farm. 



I. BORDER COUNTIES. 



BERWICK, ROXBURGH, DUMFRIES. 



In Berwickshire, the cradle of Scottish husbandry, 

 improvements were begun about 1730 by Mr Swinton of 



* Published by the authority of the Commissioners, in six volumes, by 

 William Creech, Edinburgh. 



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