1844.] 



THE AGRICUL TURAL GAZETTE. 



J ^ tme be..* rolled over it, which is put in motion by horse- 

 ij^r- but it performs the work very imperfectly. 

 ^The operation of bruising the Flax may also be per- 

 sJLdbv rollers placed close together, and revolving m 

 wntr^f directions, similar to those through which the 

 MthrmAed Corn passes in the thrashing-machine. \\ hen 

 Flax is grown in large quantity, this is perhaps the most 

 elieiWe plan which can be adopted 



Lurching the Flax may also be performed by ma- 

 -•Hinerv or by raannal labour. Hand-scutching is almost 

 universal <m the Continent, and when carefully con- 

 ducted performs the work in a very superior manner to 

 Ifctt it can be done by machinery. \\ here Flax is 

 -MtensiveW cultivated, however, hand-scutching is evi- 

 dentlf inapplicable, from the difficulty in procuring the 

 necessary hands for the work ; and in this case machinery 

 mast neceasarily be employed. The construction of the 

 «*miBOO*lax-roillis exceedingly simple. Scutchers, or 

 •wipers, are placed on a horizontal axle, which thus 

 rssemb.e the spokes in a carriage- wheel, having however 

 ♦heir edces considerably sharpened ; and motion being 

 -communicated to this axle by means of a water-wheel or 

 .^tam-power, the scutchers act on the handfuls of Flax 

 which are presented to their action, resting on a board 

 placed for the purpose. This completes the preparation 

 of -Flax for the market ; and with the further details of 

 316 manufacture to prepare it for the spinner, the farmer 



is not concerned. 



These, then, are the chief details of which it is neces- 

 sary the farmer should be in possession before entering 

 -on the cultivation of Flax ; and his success or failure will 

 depend in direct proportion on the manner in which he 

 hat carried them into execution. In the cultivation of 

 grain every farmer is aware of the loss sustained by the 

 exhibition of an inferior sample at market, and in a still 

 greater degree will this be experienced by the Flax- 

 , grower. Every operation connected with its cultivation 

 -and management must be performed with the greatest 

 -<jare, and when this has been done the farmer may calcu- 

 -Jate on a golden harvest. The defective system adopted 

 tbf ouTvFlax-growers became apparent on the opening of 

 o*r ports to the foreigner, and so unremunerating did 

 prices in consequence become, that until lately our manu- 

 fcctureTs were in a great degree dependent on the foreign 

 market for their supply. It is to be hoped that in the 

 vigorous measures which are now in operation for the 

 extension of the culture of this crop, the importance of 

 proceeding on correct principles will not be overlooked, 

 -otherwise all efforts for the purpose will be worse than 

 us tleas. 



The produce of Flax, even under the best system of 



management, will vary much according to soil, season, 



and many other particulars. -In those parts of the 



Continent where its culture is so well understood, it is 



eiteemed their golden crop, and regarded as superior to 



any other on the farm. The ordinary produce there is 



from 201 to 30/. per acre, independent of the seed, which 



« worth 5/. or 6/. more. The seed alone, which has for 



tbe most part been altogether neglected in this country, 



»ay at a low calculation, be assumed to repay th* ™ s t 



of the seed sown, with all other charges attending the 



cultivation and management of the crop, leaving the fibre 



altogether as net proceeds. The produce in fibre will 



*ary from four to six cwt. to the acre. 



In our next paper on this subject, which will conclude 

 «« "erics, the saving of the seed and its application 

 snali be described at length. Meantime, before dismiss- 

 es the subject at present, another, though perhaps the 

 «*jt important advantage derived from Flax cultivation 

 th/Fi n ,° tlced * name ly. the value of the water in which 

 «m^ u , b6en stee P ed > as a manure. Flax water is 

 frnT Tk? i TBluab,e wben allowed to run over Grass lands, 



343 



those high rents the farmers not only pay, but~thrive 

 upon ; ln deed, a more thnving set of'meVi never me! 

 . W ' '„ ,J2? 55» k ?** ^ admitted, applies 



solely to the neighbourhood"of" J^S^ST^SSi 

 Mr. Greg s knowledge ot the Lothians seems to have 

 been principally confined. I venture to affirm, that the 

 annual rent paid by the Lothian farmers does not, on 

 an average, exceed one-half of the mean between the ex- 

 tremes of rental, mentioned by this gentleman. 



The rents are paid either previously to the first crop 

 being taken off the land, when they are termed fore- 

 rents, or they are paid at a subsequent period, when 

 they are styled back-rents. Thus, if a farmer enters at 

 Whitsunday, 1844, and at separation of crop 1844 from 

 the ground, his first year's crop will be that of 1845 ; his 

 first term's rent does not become due till Candlemas, 

 184$, provided the farm is back-rented. The object of 

 this arrangement is to afford the tenant the means of 

 paying his first rent from the sales of his first crop. The 

 general terms for the payment of rent are Candlemas 

 and Lammas — the year's rent being paid in equal pro- 

 portions, one-half at each term. 



Besides what is properly called rent, several public and 

 parochial burdens are borne by the East Lothian, in 

 common with other Scotch farmers. The principal of 

 these are, income-tax, window-tax, poor-rates, school- 

 master's salary, road-money, &c. Tenant-farmers in 

 Scotland, whose annual rental is not below 420/., pav 

 Bjrrf. per 1/. on the rental; as income-tax. Tne profits 

 arising from the occupancy of land in this country, being 

 reckoned at nearly one-third of the rental, farmers whose 

 annual rental is less than 420/., are exempt from this 

 tax. The window-tax is payable by all Scotch farmers 

 whose rental is not less than 200/. per annum. Dairies 

 and cheese-rooms are exempt, provided that the words 



Dairy" and " Cheese-room " are painted over their 



t« 



from -tko "«^«» aiiu«v C u tu run over vjrass rauus, 



<Wn L , rge 9 uaDtit y of vegetable matters, partially 

 ^omposed, which it holds in solution. Even the small 



Flax I ° f C matters carried from the pond by the 

 fonnrt+ Tne" cashed off by rains on the Grass, is 



fmuJn i ly affect its e rowth - After a trial of the 



farmew -l? k UeS conlai,ied in this substance, few 

 *nw,cm t e , dls P osed t0 allow it to flow, without in- 

 Proves far 1 1 ad J oinin & stream?, in which it generally 



too often th l ° Whatever fish thc y ma y contain, as is now 



e case.—,/. Sproule. 



^Hl C a HES ° F EAST LOTHIAN HUSBANDRY. 



knners d* ^ ° f annual rent P aid b y East Lothian 

 quality 'of /if s '. of c o«rse t entirely upon the locality, 

 with the 6 S ° ailt * otner circumstances connected 



P ric es, con g eSPeCtiVe farmS ' Durin S the rei S n of bi 6 h 

 Te *al farm ec ^ u ^ nt on tDe French revolutionary war, se- 



to eight P- Sm coun ty were rented so high as seven 



P^ent intk *** PCr aCre * The rent commonl y P aid ** 

 ^•and 5/ nei S h bourhood of Dunbar, ranges between 



'* ti °nj that'tr r a p re • bUt i - t mUst be takeD int ° consider - 

 * 0r agrjcuh 118 i trict enjoys very superior advantages 

 Prised th ? P urs uits ; the soil is dry and easily pul- 



Iin Wn* IHa mate mild ' and the earlifcst in the county ; 



respective doors or windows. The amount of tax varies, 

 of course, with the number of windows in the house. It 

 is a generally believed, though a very erroneous supposi- 

 tion, both in England and in Ireland, that there are no 

 poor-rates in this country. It is true, indeed, that Scot- 

 land has no large and costly edifices, in which to house 

 her aged and helpless poor. Pauperism is here regarded 

 as a disgrace. Nothing but the most pinching necessity 

 compels even " the poorest of the poor " to seek ad- 

 mittance on the poors'-roll; and hence the poor-rates 

 are generally very moderate. The management of the 

 poor is vested in the minister and Kirk-session of each 

 parish, and the funds for supplying their necessities are 

 derived from voluntary collections at the church doors, 

 and an assessment on the heritors or proprietors of the 

 parish, laid on by themselves, one-half of which is paid 

 by the farmers, according to their rental. Assistance is 

 in general given only to the aged and feeble, who are 

 really indigent, and averages about 5s. a month to each 

 person receiving in-door relief. The amount usually 

 borne by the farmer is very moderate, but in some 

 parishes it is increasing to rather a serious extent, 

 arising, no doubt, from want of sufficient employment 

 for thft labouring classes. In the parish in which I 

 reside, containing a population of 700, without any town 



or village, the poor-rates have latterly risen to about 90/. 

 per annum. The rental of the parish, as assessed in 

 1843, is 7339/. 6*., "that is, at the rate of about Is. 4d. , 

 per pound on the rental, for the tenant's share. 



Scotland has been long distinguished for its parochial 

 schools. The schoolmasters are paid by a fixed salary — 

 one-half of which is borne by the tenants — in addition to 

 small fees which he is entitled to receive from his pupils. 

 The maximum fixed salary is, I believe, 34/. 4s. Gd. ; the 

 minimum, 25/. 14s. 



By a recent county regulation, sanctioned by Act of 

 Parliament, every 60 acres of arable land is denominated 

 a ploughgate, being the extent which one pair of horses 

 is supposed to be capable of working. For every 60 acres 

 of arable land, or for every pair of horses, the farmer 

 has to pay generally 21. towards the fund for keeping in 

 repair the roads in the parish in which he resides. 



In order to illustrate more clearly — for the subject has 

 been frequently misrepresented — the amount of rent and 

 public burdens borne by tenant-farmers in this district, I 

 give the following example. The farm consists of 350 

 acres, five miles from Haddington, and 250 feet above the 

 level of the sea : soil a strong clay, very expensive to 

 labour, employing always six and frequently seven pairs 

 of horses. 



Rent of 350 acres, at 21. 5s. per acre ^787 10 

 I ncome Tax .... 

 Window Tax for l6 windows 

 Poor Rates for current year 



Scotland, being almost umversaii regarded by farmers 

 as the safest mode of payment iu aa average of wars. 

 But < ,^-ients, nowever popular, are, under existing" 

 circumstances, liable to numerous objections. That the 

 rent bears heaviest upon the tanner when, from a bad 

 season, and deficient crop, he is least able to afford it is 

 certainly a very serious detect in this sxstem. It must 

 be taken into consideration, too, that taw landlords' reals 

 would be sometimes nearly doubled, at a time wkn 

 farmers aud others are suffering from scarcity and conse- 

 quent dearth. On the other hand the Corn-rent plan affords 

 this great advantage to the farmer, viz.: that in years of 

 unusual abundance, when prices are considerably de- 

 pressed below tbe general level, they are saved from 

 almost certain ruin, by the comparatively small nuts 

 they have to pay, while having, at the same time, an 

 augmented quantity of saleable produce. In such seasons 

 the effect of Corn-rents would evidently be an improper 

 reduction of the landlords' income. 



To obviate these and other evils attendant on tfae 

 Corn-rent system, a simple expedient has been adopted 

 by some landlords, and which has gone far to remove 

 many of its defects : this consists in fixing a maximum 

 and a minimum price for the particular species of grain, 

 payable as rent. It is stipulated, on taking the farm, 

 that a certain quantity of Wheat, or other gram, is to be 

 paid to the landlord, converted into money, according to 

 the fiar or average prices of that year's crop ; but to 

 whatever extent prices may rise above the maximum 

 price originally fixed upon, the tenant is not required to 

 pay such excess of price. On the other hand, it is agreed 

 upon, that to whatever extent prices may be depressed 

 below the fixed minimum, the landlord is entitled to 

 receive this minimum price for the. quantity payable to 

 him.* By means of this check, the tenant is not compelled 

 to pay up to the average price of grain in very dear and 

 scanty years, which would evidently be ruinous ; while 

 on the other hand, in years of unusual plenty and de- 

 pressed prices, the landlord is preserved from the 

 unpleasant consequences of a greatly reduced rent-roll. 

 Various other schemes have "been propounded for avert- 

 ing the evils of Corn-rents, such as taking a seven years' 

 average of the yearly fiar prices, and computing the rent 

 by this average price, &c; but all of them have been 

 found more or less defective when brought to the test of 

 practice. The species of grain generally adopted iu this 

 county for rent is Wheat, but in some of the elevated 

 firms, where this is not grown, Oats and Barley are 

 taken. 



The farmers of this county generally prefer a mixed 

 mode of payment — partly in Corn, or rather the price 

 of Corn, and partly in money. This system appears to 

 work very satisfactorily both for landlord and tenant, aud 

 accordingly mixed rents are becoming general. One 

 very obvious advantage of this plan arises from the cir- 

 cumstance of Corn not being the only produce of a farm. 

 Although East Lothian is, as has been already stated, 

 essentially a Corn-growing county, yet a large number of 



the fHrmcrs Ul«kc n ronsidciablu portion of their rent 



from the sale of cattle and sheep, or by letting Turnips 

 and Grass to dealers. The common amount of mixed 

 rent paid at present for medium quality of Jand is one 

 boll of Wheat, second fiar, and one pound of fixed 

 rent. — T. Sullivan. 



. j€8 

 * • • o 



4 



Schoolmasters' salary . r . , . . 1 



• 12 

 



Road-money (six pairs of horses) 



Dos 







37 

 











8 







6 

 









 



Public burdens 

 Rent 



29 5 6 



78/ 10 



Total 



.JCS16 15 6 



bat ^e gen°e^l Pay BB ° re lhan l2 *' t0 15 *" P er "• ? 



Cou «y ra „ ", av erag€ money-rent throughout the 



Wh ^tJ 0rn g r e p S /:° m 2/ - to 2/ - I** Per Scotch acre ; and, 

 Corn Puted or !! a,e P ? ,d ' from 6 to 9 bushels of Wheat, 



Rents 

 amount, 



k 



D,edl ^coiiot7fi ,C,lC - U mt0 mon ey, according to the 

 fl8 * rt *> in ?j \ r .*T e8 ' Mr ' Gre S> of Hertfordshire, 



■^j* c2Si W ~i 8ome tirae a «° in the * ia * 



3/ - t0 7L p t acr >> A ^ ''"I ' the L ° thian tarmS 



f acre. And immediately he adds, * And 



are paid either wholly in money to a fixed 

 wholly in Corn, computed by the fiar prices of 

 the county, rising and falling with the fluctuations of the 

 market, or partly in money and partly in Corn. Each 

 of these modes of payment has its advocates, and much 

 diversity of opinion prevails even among the farmers ; 

 themselves respecting the comparative utility and safety 

 of the respective modes of payment. They appear to 

 agree only on one point, namely, that of all kinds of rent 

 a fixed money-rent is the worst for the tenant. This 

 mode of paymer.t is, however, very common in East 



Lothian, and is generally preferred by the landlords. , . — _ , f 



The Corn-rent system ,s decided.,- the n.ost popular ^™ e £>»^^ '£££5mS££< *" 

 if not the most common, m this and some other parts of i wheat, and no minimum. 



ON THE TURNIP-FLY. 

 Some years ago I farmed some uninclosed lands, and 

 having a somewhat speculative neighbour having portions 

 in the same open field, we occasionally tried experiments 

 conjointly, the intermixture of these common lands being 

 in some degree favourable for such practices. After 

 reading most of the ** infallible remedies" of the day for 

 securing the Turnip-crop from the ravages of the fly, we 

 each selected one of two experiments for one season's 

 trial. My friend's choice was a mixture of some other 

 seeds of earlier vegetation than Turnip-seed, that the Ay 

 might have its fill and pass into its change before the 

 Turnips came up ; a portion of Radish-seed was accowl- 

 ingly mixed with the Turnip-seed, which certainly oaroe 

 up first, but, contrary to expectation, the enemy left the 

 Radishes untouched, but finished off every plant or tbe 

 Turnip-crop, according to the regular practice. This 

 left plenty of room for the Radishes to grow, and they 

 produced a very abundant supply for the whole parish. 

 My experiment was a more expensive and laborious ex-* 

 ploit ; we had been reading Sir John Sinclair's method, 

 which was to burn the land previous to sowing the seed, 

 thereby destroying the grub or chrysalis containing the 

 Turnip beetle in its embryo state. There is but one 

 objection to this system, which most assuredly is a certain 

 remedy, but, from the consumption of the material, it is 

 in a manner impracticable. The author recommends col- 

 lecting together everything combustible about the farm — 

 the cuttings of hedges, the clearings of ditches, &c, 

 together with what straw can be spared (?) ; these are to 

 be strewed over the land, and burnt on the ground, a few 

 hours or so before the seed is put into it. The material 

 we got for this purpose by raking off the old Wheat- 

 stubble from the young Clover plant, such being the 

 practice of cropping. Two ridges (called acres) were 

 selected for this roasting — the process much resembles 

 our practice of burning a fat pig for bacon. That season 

 was remarkable for the destructiveness of the fly, but the 

 twb ridges were untouched, they flourished amid tbe 

 | desolation of barrenness around thera ; and it was worthy 

 of notice, as confirmatory of the effect upon the «raf,tlwrit 

 the half of the next ridge of land to windward wai p«*- 

 tiallv secured bv the effect of the conflai 



