$2 HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Swinton, and ]\Ir Hume of Eccles, Lord Kaimes engaged 

 in agricultural improvement with much ardour. Mr Arthur 

 Bruce, in his View of the Agriculture of Berwickshire, pub- 

 lished in 1794, says that 'about 1745, his Lordship had 

 turnip fields dressed, and cattle fed with the produce, 

 Mhich were the first turnips sown in Benvickshire for the 

 express purpose of feeding cattle. Clover and artificial 

 grasses were also sown at Kaimes in abundance, and at 

 sundry other places about the year 1750.' From the latter 

 date improvement was general. Turnips were sown by all 

 the best farmers. The practice of drill sowing was not, 

 however, general ; for Mr Wight of Ormiston, in his survey 

 of the county in 1776, made for the Commissioners on the 

 Annexed Estates, mentions several instances in which the 

 most advanced farmers sowed the turnip broadcast as well 

 as in drills. The plough in use was mostly Small's* two- 

 horse. The cattle in the county were somewhat mixed. 

 There were some Longhorns, which were in repute for 

 their large size. There were a good many Shorthorns, or 

 (as they were more commonly called), Holderness cattle. 

 The Rev. Thomas Mill, in his brief report, dated 1793, 

 in the Old Statistical Account of the Parish of Ladykirk, 

 which borders ^^'ith the Tweed, says, in a phrase that now 

 sounds curiously — ' The black cattle here are of the Short- 

 horn breed.' "f* The Shorthorns were doubtless of some- 

 what mixed character. We may note, as indicative of 

 the stock in the district, that Mr William Robertson, 

 of Ladykirk, made his first purchases from the Collings 



* So named from the maker, James Small, a native of Berwickshire, who, 

 after living in England, returned to Berwickshire about 1764. Before that 

 date there was no plough-wright nearer than Northumberland. Mr John 

 Renton of Lammerton settled Small at Blackater Mount, where he erected the 

 necessary buildings for him, and gave him cash and credit. 



t The phrase ' black cattle ' merely means cattle, as distinguished from 

 horses, which are often even yet included under the term ' cattle. ' Many per- 

 sons of middle age may recollect the doggerel lines printed on cover of school 

 copy book under sketch of a start of a stage-coach and horses : 



Away they rattle, 



Men and cattle, 



Crack whip, dash away. 



