154 



State of Agriculture in Northumberland. 



ing at once the largest produce at the least expense, with by far 

 the most effectual working of the land and removal of weeds, was 

 commenced by that intelligent agriculturist, Mr. W. Dawson, on 

 his farm in Roxburghshire, and ten or twelve years more elapsed 

 before it came into general use on the borders.* The prevalence 

 of turnip-growing in the place of naked fallows, or crops of peas 

 full of weeds, together with the use of artificial grasses, which 

 was introduced about the same time, made a complete revolution 

 in the management and value of land, and added immensely to the 

 productiveness of the country. The money which was made by 

 farming was again eagerly applied, under the encouragement of 

 leases, to the reclaiming of waste lands and the promotion of agri- 

 cultural improvement. Section after section of the outfield 

 lands, so called, were brought into productive cultivation; the 

 sober labour of the flail became too slow a process for the in- 

 creased produce. Threshing machines, w^orked by horses or 

 driven by water, and sometimes by wind, became general, al- 

 though in our days the latter fickle and uncertain power has been 

 universally superseded by steam ; comfortable and substantial farm- 

 houses were built, and commodious sets of farm-ofhces, laid out 

 upon regular and compact plans, were erected in central situations, 

 with roads diverging from them so as to give the easiest access to 

 all parts. The gradual increase of rents after the termination of the 

 unfortunate American war in 1783, encouraged landlords in the 

 outlay necessary to effect such substantial and permanent im- 

 provements ; an increase in the demand for labour in manufac- 

 tures, in the rate of wages, and in the population, all tended to an 

 advance of the farmer's profits, and a consequent increase of the 

 competition for land and of the rents offered for it. And when 

 the war arising out of the French Revolution, with the extraordi- 

 nary expenditure and unprecedented issues of paper-money at- 

 tending it, were in full operation, producing, if not real wealth, 

 yet something which for the time stood in the place of it, the 

 rents of farms which fell out of lease from the year 1795 to 1805 

 were advanced frequently three, and in some cases fourfold. 

 Then it was that the last great impulse was given to the already 

 rapidly improving system of Northumbrian agriculture. The 

 farmers found themselves in possession of abundant capital, with 

 habits, energy, and capacity for the greatest exertions ; the last re - 



* It is stated in Bailey and Culley's Survey of Northumberland in 1797, 

 that Mr. Pringle, formerly a surgeon in the army, who had an estate near 

 Coldstream, was the first person in these parts who cultivated turnips in 

 drills, in 17o7, which he made 3^ feet wide, and that he had taken the idea 

 from Tull's book on Husbandry. And that Mr. Dawson, who entered upon 

 the farm of Frogden, near Kelso, in 1762, adopted the practice, trying drills 

 of various width, and deciding upon those of 30 inches, as best suited for 

 horse-hoeing and for producing a full crop. 



