ment would yield food for at least half as marry human beings, are this wantonly sacrificed to inexcusable prejudice and perversity. It is not here that the reader will expect an enquiry into the relative utility and value of oxen and horses in the labours of husbandry: it is however a certain fact, that in Scotlaud, with a very few exceptions, oxen have been laid aside, in exact proportion to the progress of modern agriculture. As on a point of this sort the authority of scientific experience must have great weight, it is to be remarked, that the French (who during the long continued disorders with which their country has been visited, have used every effort, and most successfully, both in theory and in practice, to improve every branch of their cultivation) seem to think as meanly of ox teams as the farmers of Scotland. In a complete treatise on husbandry, published in 1809, by the agricultural department of the Institute of France, it is expressly stated that all labour in the best cultivated districts, and upon a large scale, is performed by horses instead of oxen. This preference is said to proceed, not from a blind attachment to old custom, but from accurate and experimental observation, and an impartial comparison of the advantages and disadvantages accruing from the employment of those two kinds of animals. The threshing-mill has also had a powerful effect not only in diminishing the charges, but in augmenting the marketable produce of the land. This most useful machine was brought to its perfection about 1786; and is now employed in Scotland on almost every farm of 2 or more ploughs; being wrought by water, wind, or animal power; and in some instances even by steam. The saving of labour by this machine, particularly when driven by water, is so great, that every kind of grain is thrashed and dressed for market at the expence of the dressing alone when the flail is employed. The grain is also by this mill much more perfectly separated from the straw than it ever can be done by hand-labour. The expedition with which the grain is prepared is likewise of great importance. When thrashed by the flail corn usually lies several days, not to say weeks, on a damp floor before it be cleaned, exposed to vermin and pilfering; whereas by a good mill, a large quantity may be thrashed, completely dressed, and secured in the granary in a few hours, and under the owner's eye. Much corn too may be preserved in an unfavourable harvest, when speedily thrashed, which would certainly be spoiled in the field or in the stack. A threshingmill of great power is an expensive article; but when worked by water it saves at least 5 shillings on every acre of corn, even on farms of a small size: but much more on large farms. If we take into account all its other advantages, especially the additional grain obtained from the -straw, its value will not be over-rated when it is taken at 10 shillings per acre. It is remarkable that in Scotland, as husbandry has been studied and improved, waggons have constantly been laid aside, and 2 horse carts have been introduced; thereby producing a great saving in animal labour. Fanners or winnowing machines were brought from Holland, a -century ago, and are now universally used. The skilful position, arrangement, and construction of farm-buildings and fences, have also an effect similar to that of machinery in abridging labour: the advantages of a central position alone of the buildings have been estimated at from one to two hundred pounds yearly on extensive farms. The intermixture of property and possession called run-rig, and rundale, commons, and tithes, have long been almost unknown in Scotland; as also poor-rates, excepting in a few places where a voluntary assessment has been formed, quite inconsiderable in its amount, and borne equally by the land-holder and the land-occupier. The agriculture of Scotland has received great encouragement from the universal practice of holding lands on leases for a considerable term of years, usually one, two, or more terms of 19 years each. A tenant at will is there now almost unknown; and it cannot be denied, that no confidence, however well founded, in the character of a landlord, however excellent, either can or ought to stand in the place of a good and valid lease. In these leases, one or two clauses secure the interest of the landlord, without, in the smallest degree, restraining the just freedom of the tenant; no particular course of management being prescribed until towards the close of the term, when the interest of both parties, so far united, begin to be different. The principal covenants are, that the tenant shall not take two corn crops in succession; and that, at the expiration of the term, he shall leave to his successor a certain proportion of the farm for fallow, or fallow crops, and under cultivated herbage. Straw is never allowed to be sold, excepting near large towns, where manure can be procured in return. When the British farmer shall be set free from the degrading right exercised by the landlord, of destroying his fences and winter crops in pursuit of game, on fields, which, for other purposes, the landlord cannot enter without permission, the connection between the proprietor and the occupier of land in Scotland, will be of the most liberal and encouraging sort, and assume a character as purely commercial and equable as the nature of the concern can admit. On the subject of the proper general size of farms, much has been written for a number of years past; but both sides seem to have failed in establishing their point, chiefly from taking too confined a view of the matter. From the experience of Scotland, it has been found, that when new land is to be brought into culture, or old, but mismanaged land, is to be recovered, large farms alone have been successful. It is only on such farms, secured by a long certain lease, that a man of the necessary capital will bestow his money and his care. For the first three or four or more years, he expects no profit; but he is able to do without it. By the remainder of his lease, however, he is amply indemnified; and on its expiration, the landlord is at no loss to find other persons, of small capital, ready to take a portion of the improved land; by which means, his rent-roll is increased beyond what any great cultivator would give him for the whole. After a certain progress has been made in the spread of knowledge and capital, the enlargement of farms seems to stand still; and at a certain stage beyond that point, they are usually seen to diminish. As far as the public are concerned, it does not appear that their interests can be affected by the size of farms, provided land be let for what it will bring in a fair open market. It is the interest of the landlord to draw the utmost possible revenue from his property, taking care always to deal with a substantial tenant; and to encourage a free competition on the part of farmers, is the best method to attain his purpose. Again, it is the interest of the tenant, in order to pay his rent, to raise the greatest possible quantity of the most requisite products. And lastly, it is the interest of the public at large, that the market be fully supplied with those products, not for a few months after harvest only, but regularly throughout the year. The principal objections to large farms are, that they depopulate a country; which is certainly true, when applied to store-farms, in hilly districts,, where employment is found for a few people only. But it is as certainly false, when applied to tillage farms; on which it has been ascertained, by actual enumeration, that many more hands have been employed since farms were enlarged. Another objection is, that great farmers frequently keep back their corn from market, until they obtain a monopoly price, especially in seasons of scarcity. This notion is now, however, generally exploded. On the other hand, it is evident, that some recent and most valuable mechanical inventions would never have come into general use, had there been no farms of more than 100 or 150 acres that no great improvement could have taken place in our livestock ;-that there could have been no system of arrangement, by which every different quality of soil is made to produce those crops, and to feed those peculiar animals for which it is best calculated ;-tliat it would have been next to impossible to combine tillage and pasturage on the same farm, which so powerfully sustain and augment the fertility of the soil ;that the surplus produce, for the supply of towns, would have been inconsiderable at all times; and, from the general exigencies of the small tenants, brought to market in too great abundance in the early part of the season, instead of apportioning it over the whole year;-that, in bad years there would have been no surplus at all;-and that, in short, as no person of capital and enterprise would ever have entered into the profession of a practical farmer, our extensive moors, heaths, and mosses, and, indeed, all inferior or exhausted soils, must either have remained in their natural state, or been partially and most unprofitably cultivated, under the management of persons employed by great proprietors, but who felt no anxious interest in the success of their operations. In this great manufacturing and commercial country, it is not the object that every man should labour the soil, but that the largest surplus, after the demands of the farmer are satisfied, should be furnished for the other classes of society, occupied in different ways. Of this, the best standard is the amount of rent. It is idle to suppose, that a great farmer can, by any savings in family expences, afford a higher rent than a number of small farmers on the same land. The personal labour of small tenants, the moderate accommodations with which they are contented, their careful, frugal manner of living, and their close attention to those small profits, which never enter the pocket of the great cultivator, warrant the conclusion, that if they cannot pay so high a rent as he does, it is because they cannot bring to market so large a surplus. Wherever the case is otherwise, the interest of the landlord, which is precisely the same with that of the public, will always prevent him from laying into one the separate possessions of a number of small occupiers. It is, however, indisputable, that the frequent use of this right has materially promoted the agricultural improvement of Scotland. Explanation of Figures relative to Agriculture. Plate I. fig. 1. A sowing machine, of a very simple construction, pushed forward like a wheel-barrow; in which A is the box containing |