428 Anniversary Address. 



in 1812 for £3,200. The estate of Pawston advanced 

 within the same period, from £560 to £2,140. The 

 estate of Ednam, which was sold in 1787 for £31,500 

 was purchased by Lord Dudley and Ward, in 1825, at 

 £105,000. In 1780 the estimated rental of the arable 

 land in Scotland was £1,500,000, in 1815 it had risen 

 to £4,400,000. 



Coming now, as we would wish, to speak of the 

 advances made during the last sixty years, we find no such 

 magical progress and transformation to be recorded. 

 The theory of agriculture — us an art — seems to have 

 been as thoroughly understood and to have been applied 

 with as much intelligence and enterprise to the cul- 

 tivation of the soil in 1830 as at the present day. 

 The systems of husbandry followed were very much the 

 same as now. There are no changes to record in the 

 varieties of the crops cultivated. The produce per acre, 

 on ordinary good dry land, has not been increased, and 

 the value of such land has not risen. Yet all the same 

 there have been advances and very marked ones. 

 The application of "thorough drainage"' has enormously 

 augmented the acreage subjected to " good husbandry." 

 Lands formerly comparatively unproductive have thereby 

 been raised to the highest grade among grain and meat 

 producing soils. The introduction of artificial manures 

 has extended the available arable acreage of the country 

 in an enormous degree ; and by making the cultivation 

 of turnips possible on high and far outlying situations, 

 has perhaps nearly doubled the numbers of sheep sent 

 to the butcher-market from a large proportion of Scotland. 

 In other directions advances might be mentioned, which 

 I forbear doing, wishing rather to direct your attention 

 to the main purpose of my remarks, viz : — How almost 

 all, if not all, the progress made in agriculture during 

 these years, is to be ascribed to the help it has received from 

 the researches of careful and intelligent scientists into the 

 methods and doings of Nature. Agriculture, from being 

 solelv an Art, has grown during these years into a Science. 





