AGRICULTURE IN SCOTLAND — 179I-I796. 55 



country, but he first effectively carried it out 'about 1759' 

 on his farm of Frogden, near Kelso. Dr Douglas says that 

 Mr Dawson had annually from 80 to 100 acres of turnips. 

 The doctor adds — ' The celerity with which his cattle be- 

 came fat for the market, the excellent condition of those 

 which he reared and kept, the large quantity of dung which 

 was produced, and the luxuriance of the crops which suc- 

 ceeded the turnips soon made proselytes of his immediate 

 neighbours, and recommended his method gradually to gene- 

 ral imitation. But so slow has been its progress, that, during 

 twenty years, it has scarcely spread as many miles, and at 

 this moment (1796), after the experience of thirty-six years, 

 it only begins to be practised in some distant parts of the 

 county.' He further mentions that two or three kinds of 

 turnips were commonly mixed and sown together on the 

 same fields, the white, green, and red top, though, he ob- 

 serves, 'judicious farmers begin to perceive the propriety 

 of sowing them separately.' Swedish turnips had been 

 tried, but without much success, and the cultivation of 

 them had begun to decline. In some parts of the country 

 turnips were very largely cultivated. Thus, the report for 

 Linton parish says that nearly one-fourth of the arable 

 land was laid down with turnips, and the reporter remarks, 

 with a touch of poetry, that the crop ' had turned winter 

 into summer, not only by keeping the price of meat nearly 

 equal throughout the year, but also by clothing the fields 

 with a beautiful green in the coldest season.' The writer 

 adds that in Linton parish ' 500 guineas would scarcely 

 purchase what is here raised annually of turnips.' We 

 need not particularise the other crops. The county was 

 famous for its Blainslie oat, ' so called because they have, 

 from time immemorial, been produced at Blainslie, a large 

 district of land in the parish of Melrose.' As to stock, Mr 

 Ure says most of the milch cows are ' a mixture of the 

 Dutch, French, and English kinds. They are short-horned, 

 deep-ribbed, and of a white and red colour.' He notes that 

 ' the Ayrshire breed has now got into the county, and is 

 found to answer extremely well.' He mentions that Sir 

 John Riddell of Riddel kept a bull of the Teeswater breed, 



