54 HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



went immediately behind the plough, and threw the seed, not with a sparing 

 hand, into the drill : he was followed by a man who harrowed in the seed with 

 a whin-bush, which he drew after him. Doctor Rutherford, and all the curious 

 people of Melrose, were spectators, and, with silent, though devout fervour, 

 implored the blessing of Heaven on the new experiment. Their pious requests 

 were not rejected by Him who blesses the labour of the husbandman. The 

 young plants very soon made a healthy appearance ; and, when beginning to 

 swell, were thinned by the hand, after which the earth, of each side of the 

 drills, was, with hoes, drawn up to the roots by two men, one for each side. 

 About three weeks afterwards, the earth was drawn up to them a second time. 

 This operation was repeated three or four times. The turnips, by the end 

 of harvest, increased to a great size. Before that time, however, not a few of 

 them fell a sacrifice to the curiosity, or rather the lawless greed, of some of 

 the inhabitants in the neighbourhood. To prevent the nocturnal incursions 

 made into the field, a great number of caltrops, or crowfoots of iron, were 

 planted among the turnips, and an intimation thereof made at the kirk door on 

 Sabbaths, and by beat of drum in the streets of Melrose on market days. 

 After these necessary precautions were used, the turnips were permitted to 

 grow unmolested. 



The reverend gentleman goes on to state that the 

 turnips were given to two bullocks, which ' were fattened 

 by the beginning of March. They were so large that the 

 people in the neighbourhood, looking upon them as mon- 

 sters, would not purchase them. They were driven to 

 Dalkeith, and sold to the butchers for a great price.' Dr 

 Douglas of Galashiels, in his Report on the County, written 

 in 1796, says, Mr Turner at Linthaughlee, near Jedburgh, 

 and Mr George Cranstoun at Crailing, might dispute the 

 palm of priority with Dr Rutherford in the culture of the 

 turnip. He adds, Mr Cranstoun and Mr John Hood, for- 

 merly at Nisbet, in Berwickshire, but in 1796 in Roxburgh, 

 'had fields of turnips about the time mentioned (1747), but 

 were obliged to drop that crop, as neither themselves nor 

 their servants understood the management of it properly, 

 and the turnips were mostly stolen by idle and curious 

 people before they attained their full growth.' Both Mr 

 Ure and Dr Douglas agree in stating that Mr William Daw- 

 son, ' who had made himself complete master of the best 

 modes of English husbandry by residence for several years 

 in those counties where it is carried to the greatest perfec- 

 tion,' was the first to introduce the culture of turnips in 

 drills on a large scale into the regular rotation of the farm. 

 This culture he had tried in 1755 in another part of the 



