68 



Agriculture of Scotland. 



1. Turnips. 5. Oats. 



2. Barley. Turnips. 



3. 4. Grass for two years, cut in the first. 



Being the very same which generally prevails in that district at 

 the present day. It was also in the vicinity of this intelligent in- 

 dividual £ farm that, animated by his excellent example, — where 

 100 acres of drilled turnips were often seen, it is said, at this far- 

 off day, without a weed, — we find a spirit of emulation producing 

 a perfection in the operation and spread of the cultivation of this 

 invaluable crop, which at no very distant day fast made its way 

 among the out-fields of this district. The greater part of the tur- 

 nip-crop throughout the country was, however, still sown broad- 

 cast, and it must be noticed, — as indicative of the deliberate caution 

 and want of enterprise which characterised the agriculturists of that 

 time, — that, although ]\Ir. Dawson's excellent and systematic plan 

 had been nearly perfected fifteen years before the commencement 

 of this epoch, it was only now beginning slowly to extend beyond 

 the district thus distinguished by his spirit and intelligence. In 

 the generality of farms where drilling prevailed, it was still com- 

 monly performed by making ridges of from three to four feet wide, 

 upon the top of w-hich one row of turnips was sown, thus, of 

 course, forming a space of equal extent with these ridges between 

 each drill. This, besides causing a considerable waste of ground, 

 prevented the land acquiring the benefit of that fertility which 

 accrues from a close and complete covering. Another mode of 

 growing turnips was, after the land had been dunged, ploughed, 

 and harrowed, to an equal surface, a drill machine was run by the 

 hand along the fields the outside wheel forming the mark by 

 which the return of the implement w as conducted. The field 

 was afterwards rolled, and when the young plants made their ap- 

 pearance they Vv cre thinned out by the fingers, without the use of 

 a hoe : where drills were formed by the plough previous to sow- 

 ing, it was no uncommon method first to spread the manure in 

 rows upon the flattened surface — a mode which occasioned, it may 

 well be supposed, great inequality in the rows. 



From what has been seen of the mode of rotation in ge- 

 neral use, it will be observed that recourse to artificial grasses 

 had not yet been had to the extent which so excellent an improve- 

 ment called for, and this appears chiefly to have been owing to 

 the comparatively slight regard which was given to the main- 

 tenance of live stock, and the consequent increase of that main- 

 spring of good husbandry, rich manure. That the advantages of 

 maintaining a proportion of sheep and cattle upon arable lands were 

 not earlier recognised has been justly attributed to the necessity 

 which it vras supposed existed to have annually in crop a large 

 extent of surface^ in order to make up the rental-bolls payable to 



