80 



Agriculture of Scotland. 



We must not omit to mention that the cause of agriculture re- 

 ceived much valuable assistance at this time from the indefatigable 

 exertions and patient industry of the late Sir John Sinclair, to 

 whose unwearied perseverance the country was indebted for the 

 institution of the National Board of Agriculture, under the 

 auspices of which so much excellent agricultural information was 

 shortly after disseminated throughout the country, through the 

 medium of the statistical accounts and county surveys. 



Implements. -~\t is deserving of particular notice, that during 

 this period the threshing-machine, as completed in all its chief 

 principles by Mickle, began to come into use, and though chiefly 

 then operated upon by animal power, — so as to detract somewhat 

 from its economy in labour, — its advantages were conspicuously 

 felt, both in the superior efHcacy of the operation and the im- 

 proved condition in which it enabled the farmer to bring his 

 grain to market. It was also of infinite use, in unfavourable 

 seasons, in affording a speedy method of saving such corn as 

 proved to be unfit to stack, or threatened to spoil when thus pre- 

 maturely disposed of. In short, no other application of ma- 

 chinery to agriculture has been of such importance to the farmer 

 in giving him a complete control over his crops. 



Small's plough had now come into universal operation, except- 

 ing on some stiff soils, especially when first broken up from grass, 

 or extraneous obstructions occurred, in which case the old Scotch 

 plough was still in favoiir ; and it was only then also that more 

 than two horses or oxen Avere used in this implement. The- 

 latter, — for which a growing partiality appeared to exist during the 

 last period under review, — had now given place, to a considerable 

 extent, to horses, as being more fitted for the more general pur- 

 poses of draught, to which the improvement of the times had 

 given rise. As we consider it necessary only, under this head, 

 to notice marked improvements, it may be enough here to state 

 that drill-machines, for depositing in rows both grain and turnip- 

 seeds, were now coming into use ; and several new implements, 

 though also of a rude construction, were being employed for 

 horse-hoeing between the drills. 



Rents. — The steadily higher rates which characterized the price 

 of grain for upwards of twenty years immediately preceding 

 1795, in comparison with what they had borne in the earlier part 

 of the century,* tended materially to continue to raise the amount 



* The average price of wheat, from 1701 to 1766 was 32*. \d. 



„ „ from 1773 to 1784 — 48.?. 8^^. 



from 1784 to 1795 — bQs, 2d. 

 -—Tooke's History of Prices, vol. i. p. 83, ^c. 



