84 



Agriculture of Scotland. 



rotations, on free good soils^ with some depth, came to be turnips, 

 wheat or barley, clover and rye-grass, oats. On the thinner lands 

 of this description the general plan Avas to pasture for two or 

 more years. The strong, t^in clays were commonly subjected 

 to a rotation of fallow, wheat, clover and rye-grass, and oats ; 

 while, upon those of more depth, and of a generous nature, the 

 rotation was more varied, and a larger demand was made upon 

 the soil, viz. : Fallow, wheat, clover and rye-grass, oats, beans, 

 wheat, and a return again to fallow. Sometimes the clover was 

 postponed and the cropping made in this order : — fallow, wheat, 

 beans, barley, clover, oats ; but as a general system this must be 

 allowed to be open to the objection, that, if an unfavourable season 

 occurred in the operation of fallowing, or in the preparation for 

 beans, the land would be out of order for the reception of the 

 grass-seeds. 



It was thus the more frequent recurrence of leguminous 

 crops which formed the marked distinction of the improved practice 

 of the period ; and, besides that it was a condition in most leases 

 that no two white crops should follow each other in succession, most 

 farmers had now become aware that little profit would accrue to 

 them from such a practice, excepting where there existed such a 

 command of manure as enabled them to counteract the consequent 

 deterioration of the soil. The more judicious alternation of crops 

 had, no doubt, been productive of this requisite to some extent ; 

 but the supply of dung in ordinary cases, it is well known, is 

 barely sufficient, from a given quantity, to maintain the generality 

 of land in good heart under the gentlest mode of treatment. 



Manures. — To this important branch of good husbandry a 

 growing attention was now paid ; the soiling of cattle in hammels, 

 and the larger supply of turnips, contributing materially to the in- 

 crease, as well as quality, of the manure. Straw, from the greater 

 abundance of better food, was now in much larger proportion sup- 

 plied for litter to cattle, and this, being richly saturated with the 

 excrementitious matter of animals now fully fed, afforded a dung- 

 hill, even applied in the same quantity, of more than double the 

 productive effect. Besides, these dung-hills were now carefully 

 laid out to undergo the necessary process of fermentation, suited 

 to the different crops and varieties of soil, and, when applied to the 

 land, every economy was used in the time and mode of application. 

 Great attention came also to be paid in collecting extraneous vege ; 

 table matter, scourings of ditches, &c., for the making of composts ; 

 and that of Lord Meadowbank particularly, of peat-moss and farm- 

 yard dung, was now in high favour. Lime continued to be ap- 

 plied liberally, though perhaps scarcely to the same extent, in those 

 districts where it had formerly been so freely used, or rather 



