Anniversary Address. 427 



crops, in particular in regard to those important articles, 

 turnips and potatoes : they have ascertained the rotation 

 for which each description of soil is respectively best 

 adapted : they cultivate in drills beans, turnips, and 

 potatoes, in a manner not to be surpassed for its 

 excellence : they have also made improvements in the 

 harvesting of grain, having brought the cleaning and 

 thrashing of grain to the highest degree of perfection, 

 almost every farmer having fanners and threshing mills ; 

 they have carried to a great extent the practice of 

 " soiling " horses, and even cattle, and have proved b}' 

 decisive experiments, the superiority of the plan : they 

 have restricted the practice of preserving permanent 

 pastures within reasonable bounds, and have proved that 

 the convertible system of husbandry, may be generally 

 adopted, to the great benefit of the proprietor and of the 

 public." Summing up, he says " the result of this 

 system is in the highest degree satisfactory. In all the 

 corn districts, where the convertible husbandry is 

 thoroughly established, greater crops are raised and 

 higher rents are paid than in any other part of the 

 British Dominion; and what is equally remarkable, the 

 condition of those engaged in agriculture, evidently bears 

 the like marks of abundance.'' 



Looking at the picture of Scottish agriculture as drawn 

 by Lord Kaimes in 1770, and the picture of it as drawn 

 by Sir John Sinclair in 1812, we cannot but marvel at 

 the almost magical transformation which has overtaken 

 the industry in the short space of less than fifty years. 

 It has emerged from a system the most rude and 

 barbarous, to a system the most intelligent and enter- 

 prising to be found anywhere among the nations of the 

 earth. And that this is no misrepresentation of what 

 did occur, is corroborated by many facts; let me only 

 notice one — the fabulous rise which took place between 

 the two periods in the value of land. Take the 

 following of local instances. The farm of Wark, 1200 

 acres in extent, which was rented in 1786' at '£800, was let 



