Report on some features of Scottish Agriculture. 140 
in the plains, the want of " hosjginjj; " Land in the former being a 
certain source of outlay, and the convenience of access from 
a hill-farm in the latter being an equally certain source of 
income. 
To the cultivation of their arable land Lowland farmers are 
indebted for the reputation which they now possess throughout 
the British islands. It is impossible to give any decisive sum- 
mary of the characteristic features of this division of Scottish 
agriculture, for clean farming, thorough cultivation, and liberal 
manuring, are happily not confined to Scotland. One point, 
however, is very striking, viz., that across the border it is pre- 
ferred to apply nitrogenous manure direct to the land, in place of 
giving large quantities of artificial food to stock, and thus making 
farmyard manure of the highest quality. INIy inquiries into this 
question produced a twofold answer, one aspect of which was 
that the feeding qualities of the roots and straw were sufficient 
to fatten stock without the aid of large quantities of artificial 
food, which are held to be unremunerative ; and the other was 
that the stimulating influence of the manure of large numbers 
of cake-eating stock rendered the crops too luxuriant to stand 
the rough usage of the Scottish climate. Whatever may be 
thought of this reasoning in England, there is no doubt that the 
Scotch farmer has the results of successful practice on his side ; 
and when these are dissected, we find that if he is careful not to 
give too much cake to his cattle and his sheep, he uses a quan- 
tity of nitrogenous and phosphatic manures, which under an 
English sky would be regarded as far exceeding a paying quantity. 
There are other points in the cultivation of the soil in which 
Scotch practice differs from English, such as the comparative 
absence of autumn cultivation for roots, the lateness of wheat 
sowing, some peculiarities in the cultivation of the potato, and 
other matters which will not fail to strike the agricultural reader 
of the following pages. With regard to the prevalent mode of 
preparing the land for roots chiefly in the spring, Mr. James 
Caird, C.B., informs me that the additional humidity and coolness 
of the Scotch climate render autumn cultivation a matter both of 
less importance and greater difficulty than in England, where 
the rainfall is much less and the drying power of the sun in 
spring is much greater. 
The labourer in Scotland presents some features in contrast 
with his English representative. He is hired for either six or 
twelve months, is lodged free, and is paid to a great extent in 
kind. The degree in which the good in this system neutral- 
izes or overpowers the attendant evil, or vice versa, depends 
partly upon the landlord, and partly upon the tenant. The most 
common result is bad cottages on one floor, frequently wdth only 
