Agriculture of Scoiland. 



69 



the landlord : for, until about this time, the great proportion of 

 rents was exacted in kind. Besides, the necessities of the people 

 had not yet imposed upon agriculturists the necessity, and at the 

 same time, advantages to them of extending and improving their 

 live-stock. 



Implements. — As to the implements in general use, the old Scotch 

 plough, a cumbrous machine, with its mould-board of wood, slightly 

 sheathed with iron, and having little curve, was still the ordinary 

 implement of tillage in a great part of Scotland. In the more 

 advanced districts, this had some time before given place to the 

 Rotherham or Yorkshire plough, as improved by James Small. 

 This also, upon its first introduction, though having its mould- 

 board of a very improved and more efficient curvature, had still 

 this essential part, as well as the head to which the stock was at- 

 tached, of wood. Since the adoption of this smaller implement, 

 the use of two horses or oxen only, in the plough, became some- 

 what generally prevalent, but the usual power employed in this 

 operation still continued to be three or four horses with a driver, 

 or more generally two horses assisting two oxen. We may well 

 suppose the work was not very nicely performed, when so unma- 

 nageable a species of draught was employed, especially when the 

 old plough, Avhich merely cut and raised the furrow slice, wdthout 

 reversing it, was used. Nor does it follow, that, in consequence 

 of the application of additional strength in the operation, plough- 

 ing was effected to any greater depth than at present : on the con- 

 trary, — as in many parts of England at this day, M'here four horses 

 are used in this work, — there is reason to believe that the soil was 

 generally turned over in a very superficial manner. Hence, also, 

 as we have seen, from the insufficiency of the implements, and the 

 space required for the working of the cattle, the great width it 

 was found necessary to preserve in the rows in the general mode 

 of executing the drill husbandry. 



It is believed there has been little alteration in the construction 

 of the harrow in common use since the improvement of this im- 

 plement suggested by Mr. Alexander Low, of Woodend, in Ber- 

 wickshire, about the year 1770. 



It is conceived to be unnecessary to enter into any further 

 detail upon this head, and that it may be sufficient to men- 

 tion that the implements of husbandry in general were very 

 limited in number, rude in construction, and, comparatively with 

 those of the present day, inefficient for the performance of neat 

 and orderly labour. Carts, owing to the badness of the roads, were 

 much smaller than at present, and they had their axles altogether 

 of wood. When the drill-system was first practised, small hand- 

 barrows, to sow beans and turnips, were in use, and a small 



