Farming of East Lothian. 



309 



The public burdens consist of statute labour and poor-rates : 

 the former is paid by the occupant, the latter payable in equal 

 proportions by owner and occupant. The statute labour is from 

 20.?. to 405. for each pair of horses ; the average of the poor-rates 

 is about 6<f. the pound of rental. In Scotland there are no tithes, 

 the Church establishment being upheld by a tax on the land, 

 payable by the owner. The annual sum thus paid in the county, 

 including the upholding of churches and manses, is a little above 

 4000/. per annum. The parochial schools are all but exclusively 

 supported by the ow^ners, although by law the tenant is bound to 

 pay one half of the schoolmaster's salary. The annual amount for 

 salaries, repairs of schoolhouses, &c., will not exceed 1500/. 



The value of land to hire for agricultural purposes is greatly 

 dependent on the facilities afforded by good roads for the convey- 

 ance of agricultural produce. The effect on the agriculture of a 

 county by being intersected with a railway, for instance, is often 

 very remarkable. In few counties has this been more strikingly 

 displayed than in East Lothian, the North British Railway not 

 only bringing the Edinburgh and Glasgow markets into close 

 proximity, but even London, and the great manufacturing towns 

 in the south. For example, potatoes, if carted from the east of 

 the county to Edinburgh, could not be taken for less than about 

 3O5. per ton, being the railway charge for the delivery of the same 

 in London ; that is, conveying goods 30 miles by cart costs as 

 much as the conveying of them about 400 miles by railway. The 

 same facilities of communication affect every article of the farm, 

 whether manures, feeding stuffs, and lean stock brought to the 

 farm, or grain, fat stock, or, this latter in another form, beef, 

 mutton, cScc, which are removed from the farm and conveyed 

 speedily and economically to the best markets, however distant. 

 Indeed, a railway is almost as essential to the agricultural pros- 

 perity of a district as thorough-draining itself. There is no 

 doubt the North British Railway has very considerably increased 

 the agricultural value of the county of East Lothian, and is greatly 

 contributing to the development of its agricultural resources. 



The history of the agriculture of East Lothian, since the end 

 of the last century, teaches one lesson so emphatically, that it 

 must not be overlooked in this Report. Its record of improve- 

 ments is almost universally that of those effected hij the tenants 

 themselves, men of the highest intelligence, and many of them 

 with considerable capital. With that history before us, we 

 should fail in reading its most obvious and most instructive 

 lesson, if we did not record in our Report of this county, that the 

 most important source of its past and present agricultural position 

 has been an enterprising and intelligent tenantry, and an edu- 

 cated and faithful class of farm labourers. 



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