ing on a great scale. It is probable, indeed, that the common vegetables, necessary for the consumption of the inhabitants of towns, will soon be raised by farmers, instead of gardeners, (early crops alone excepted), as by farmers they can be produced at half the rate, owing to their less expensive mode of cultivation.

The most approved rotation, where land lies at from two and a half, to four or five miles from Edinburgh, is, potatoes,* wheat, and grass; and sometimes, after grass, oats. If the farm amounts to 60 acres, its average produce, and the value thereof, at the prices these articles now fetch, may be stated as follow:

1. 20 acres of potatoes, at L. 19 per Scotch, or L. 15, 4 s. per English acre,†

L. 380 0 0

2. 20 acres of wheat at 40 bushels of Scotch, or 32 bushels per English acre, at 10 s. per bushel,

400 0 0

Ruta baga would also be a profitable article occasionally to cultivate in the room of potatoes, not only for the consumption of cows and horses, but as an excellent culinary vegetable; a very moderate average crop may be estimated at 20 tons, or 3200 English stones; and valuing the stone, consisting of 14 lbs., at 2 d. each, a crop of ruta baga, near Edinburgh, would be worth L. 26: 13: 4 per English acre. A much larger crop, however, is often obtained. The yellow turnip is also entitled to the particular attention of the farmers near Edinburgh; also podded peas and beans, and collards, that is, young cabbage, plants of which, (the sweetest of greens), are bundled together for spring use.

+ If the land be properly manured and dressed, the potatoe crop should equal in value the crops either of wheat or of clover. It is said, that clover, after wheat and potatoes, often fails on strong loams, but that if the land be ploughed three times, and sown with barley instead of wheat, the clover is sure to succeed.

3. 20 acres of clover, sold for being cut twice, at L. 21 per Scotch, or L. 16: 16:4 per English acre,

420 0 0

L. 1200 0 0

4. Wheat straw, at 10 kemples (317 pounds Troy) per Scotch acre, or one kemple for four bushels, or one boll of wheat, at 9 s. per kemple, is L. 4, 10 s. per Scotch, or L. 3, 10 s. per English acre,

90 0 0

L. 1290 0 0

Total value of the produce, Which is at the rate of L. 21, 10 s. per Scotch, or L. 17, 14 s. per English acre. In 1809, the produce of this extent of land was estimated at L. 26: 12 : 2 per Scotch, er L. 20 18 4 per English acre.

It is to be observed, however, that in many cases, the crops of wheat in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and in fertile soils under the more improved systems of Scotch husbandry, produce more than 32 bushels per English acre. Sometimes 12, 14, and even 16 bolls per Scotch, or 38, 47, and even 55 bushels per English acre, have been obtained: 55 bushels of wheat at 10 s. per bushel, is L. 27, 10s.; and if every 4 bushels produce six shillings worth of straw, (for the straw is proportionably less when the quantity of grain is great), the produce per English acre, in straw, would be L. 4: 11: 8, and the total produce L. 32: 1: 8 per English acre. But as wheat is cheaper when the crop is abundant, let the wheat be stated at 8 s. per bushel; the value of the produce will then amount to L. 26: 11: 8 per English acre.

When oats are taken after clover, the average produce is from 12 to 14 bolls per Scotch, which is at the rate of

from 57 to 67 bushels per English acre. The value may be stated at froin L. 11, 8 s. to L. 13, 8 s. per English acre. To these sums must be added the price of the straw, which is more valuable than wheat-straw, being reckoned more nutritious and palatable for cows and horses. It sells in Edinburgh at above 12 s. per kemple, and consequently may be stated at L. 9, 2s. per Scotch, or L. 7, 3 s. per English acre, making a crop of oats in all worth L. 20, 11 s. per English acre.

In light soils, where turnips can be raised, the crop, in common seasons, is reckoned worth L. 20 per Scotch, or L. 15: 10: 6 per English acre; but the value of a crop of turnips was greatly increased during the stoppage of distillation from grain, the cowfeeders being thereby compelled, to try other articles for the maintenance of their stock during the winter season. The price then rose from L.26 to L. 36 per Scotch, or from L. 20, 9 s. to L. 28: 6: 3 per English acre.

In regard to the clover crop, it is to be observed, that there are a description of persons called grass-dealers, who buy from the farmers whole fields of clover. They cut it down gradually, according to the demand, making it up into small bunches, eight of which make what they call a load. The bunches, which have been of late greatly diminished in point of bulk, sell at 14 d. each, and consequently the load is a shilling.

3. We shall now proceed to state the circumstances which, in addition to such great produce, enable the farmers, in the immediate vicinity of Edinburgh, to pay their rents. In the first place, The turnips, potatoes, and the grass crop, are frequently sold on the ground, without any further trouble or expence to the farmer. In the second place, farmers near Edinburgh can purchase great quantities of manure, at a cheap rate, considering the crops

*

they raise, and the prices they obtain for them. Compost dunghills indeed may be procured as low as four shillings per single horse cart-load, thirty of which is reckoned sufficient to manure, not only a Scotch acre for potatoes, but also the succeeding crops, in the common rotation of potatoes, wheat, and clover, sometimes with the addition of oats. The total expence is only at the rate of L. 6 per Scotch, or L. 4, 16s. per English acre, besides the expence of carriage. In the third place, Since the extension of Edinburgh, and the more luxurious mode of living adopted by its inhabitants, there is a ready sale, and a high price, for every article a farm can produce; in particular, such great numbers of horses are kept, not only for carts and carriages, but at the artillery and cavalry barracks erected in the neighbourhood of the town, as to occasion a great demand for hay, straw, &c. And, in the last place, The vicinity to the town, is a great convenience to the farmer, as corn and fodder, and every other article to be disposed of, can be carried more expeditiously to market, and consequently at less expence, and the payment is immediate.

4. It may be proper, in the next place, to consider the political effect which results from the high rents paid for lands near towns. Such rents, and the great competition, where produce can, with certainty, be disposed of, evi

* This must vary much, according to the distance, in so much that it may become 130 per cent. dearer to one farmer than to another. If it is driven eight miles from town, a man and two single-horse carts can do no more than bring home one turn in a day. Allowing, therefore, 16 s. for the man, the two horses, and the two carts, and 8 s. for the dung, the total is 24 s., or 12 s. per single-horse cart-load laid down on the land; whereas, farmers within a mile of town can lay down at 5 s. 4 d. a-cart, at six turns a-day.

dently tend to diminish the size of farms of this description. There are few who would wish to have above from 100 to 200 acres in their possession, upon the short leases usually near towns, and when the farmer must pay at the rate of from L. 7 to L. 10, or even as high as L. 12 per acre, and must frequently be disposing, in small quantities, of the articles produced on his farm. Hence it is that in Flanders, which is full of large towns and villages, from the existence of similar circumstances, the farms are small.

In less populous parts of the country, it can hardly be questioned, that large farms are necessary, to furnish sufficient employment to industrious, opulent, and intelligent farmers but near towns, from the greater produce, the constant cropping, and the more rapid sale, farms of a smaller description will answer the same purpose; and it is certainly for the advantage of such towns, that the farms in their neighbourhood should be of a moderate size. When there are a great number of farmers, there will be more competition; lesser objects will be attended to, and the markets will be more regularly, and better supplied.

4. Clay-land Arable Farms.

In a valuable work on agriculture, recently published, it is justly remarked, that where agriculture is followed as a distinct profession, a farm ought to be of such a size, as to furnish regular employment, not only to the farmer himself, but also to the servants and labourers employed by him, in order that the greatest possible profit may be derived from their labour, at the least possible expence. It is evident, that this can only be accomplished on a farm of considerable extent, where judicious rotations of crops can