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FIRST IMPROVERS—A SMALL SOCIETY OF
FARMERS IN BUCHAN—AN EARLY AGRICULTURAL ESSAY.
IT is believed the very first person
to introduce agricultural improvements effectively into the north of
Scotland was an English lady—Elizabeth Mordaunt—who was married to the
eldest son of the Duke of Gordon in 1706, the year before the Union. She
was a daughter of the Earl of Peterborough, himself a great improver, and
she brought down to the Duke of Gordon’s estates English ploughs, with men
to work them, and who were acquainted with fallowing—heretofore utterly
unknown in Scotland." She taught the Morayshire people how to make hay,
and set them the example of planting moors and sowing foreign grasses.
About ten years later the Earl of Haddington began to plant extensively,
and introduced other improvements, including sowing clover and other grass
seeds. Nearly contemporaneous with him was Sir Archibald Grant, second
baronet of Monymusk, who writes—-" Soon after the Union, husbandry and
manufactures were in low esteem. Turnips raised in fields for cattle by
the Earl of IRothes, and very few others, were wondered at. Wheat was
almost confined to East Lothian. Enclosures were few and planting very
little; no repair of roads, all bad, and very few wheel carriages." -
On July 13th, in the year 1723, there was instituted
"the Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland."
Its membership included 42 peers and 260 commoners, of whom 4 peers and 25
commoners belonged to Aberdeenshire. This society, which assumed the
character of a national institution, published its transactions
occasionally for the information of its members. Only seven years later a
local society was established, which embraced in its membership a good
many names of note, such as those of Alexander Lord Pitsligo, the Hon.
Alexander Fraser of Strichen, one of the senators of the College of
Justice; Sir James Elphinstone of Logie; James Ferguson of Pitfour;
Alexander Garden of Troup ; James Gordon of Ellon; Ernest Lesley of
Balquhain; George Skene of Skene; and William Urquhart of Meldrum. The
title they appear to have assumed was that of " A small Society of Farmers
in Buchan," and an Essay published by them in 1 735, which presents in
good set terms their notions concerning the main points of practical
husbandry, is somewhat of a curiosity in its way, were it only for the
graphic picture it gives of the difficulties the farmer had to struggle
with in keeping down weeds when he had not the advantage of green crops to
clean the land, but grew cereals year after year. The Essay extends to ten
separate Articles, treating of the different crops, and the appropriate
cultivation, and varieties of soil, each article being subdivided into
several Rules. In their modest preface the authors say that the essay
"contains nothing purely speculative, but a plain and genuine relation of
our practice, as we have learned from tradition, and our own repeated
experience, put into method to ease our memories, and for the instruction
of beginners."
These worthy men were thus content scrupulously to
adhere to the modes of farming they had learnt by "tradition"; and in
place of hunting after novelty or change in the way of alleged
improvement, they only sought to stereotype established practice, and put
on record well-proved methods for their own convenience and the behoof of
posterity. The land, they go on to say, was divided, in the common course
of husbandry, into "bear land, bear root, and awal bear root." They first
give rules for the ploughing of the bear land; a "break" followed by a "
clean furrow ;"
the latter, which covered in the dung, being given as late as possible—at
the end of April or beginning of May—in order to prevent that growth which
"infallibly disheartens the field for corn, when it gets footing by
ploughing bear land early." The "growth" here spoken
of, in other words, the weeds in the land, formed evidently a serious
matter of consideration. And thus, while the farmer is advised to sow
immediately after the last furrow, he is also advised to let the
newly-sown field lie at first half harrowed, and then cross-harrow it when
the seed has begun to take root; for, say the essayists, when the weeds—"
yarrs, skellachs, gules, and others"—begin to spring, "it will be fit to
crush them with the harrow." "After the brier blade falls, the corn makes
no progress till the stock be formed; the weeds taking advantage of this
delay, advance with incredible celerity, and unless they be crushed at
this juncture they soon overtop the brier, and maintain their victory till
they render the corn both thin and feeble; but a judicious management of
the harrow will set back the weeds and give the brier, which in that
season naturally grows up very quickly, the advantage over them, and
having again recovered the former loss, it will preserve its distance to
the end."
Harrowing down weeds among the briard, then, is
strongly recommended; and "because they cannot be suppressed at once, they
ought to be torn up as oft as they appear until the brier begin to recover
after stocking." No method yet tried had proved so effectual with the
weeds as this of tearing them up with iron-tined harrows; "and," say the
essayists, "if any one apprehends loss by the harrowing his brie; we do
assure him that that scruple is contrary to experience, several of our own
number having followed the above directions with great success."
Thus far of harrowing down weeds among the springing
corn. But even the free use of the harrow among the briard was not quite
enough at all times. Of course it was when it came to the awal, or
second crop after bear, that the contest between the crop and the weeds
for possession of the ground became most serious. And then, evidently, it
not unfrequently assumed the form of something very like a life-and-death
struggle; became a question, in short, whether the weeds, with which the
land was so densely stocked, or the corn was to be the predominant crop.
The roots of the weeds "being turned deeper down in ploughing" formed one
reason why the bear-root crop "sometimes escapes their clutches. But if
they miss the one, the other, to wit, the awal, is sure to feel the
weight of their revenge." Our essayists, in speaking of the management of
the awal crop, repeat their advice about the use of the harrow among the
briard in order to cheek the weeds; and after observing that "it will be
fit to harrow down the weeds about the time of stocking," they add, "and
if~, after all, the weeds happen to prevail, it may be eaten up with
beasts betwixt the beginning and middle of May." A truly sage advice it
may be said; yet, it was given in all sincerity. For it was the case that
the knot-grass and other weeds were often so deeply rooted as to "baffle
the harrow, however carefully applied." So say our authorities. And that
being the case, "it is very reasonably advised to eat both weeds and
briard up with beasts to bring them upon one leveL" And this being done,
the chances were, we are assured, that the grain would in all probability
"soon overtop the weeds."
The essayists give specific directions how this rather
nice agricultural operation might be best performed. "The animals that are
fittest to be employed in this affair," say they, "are young nolt, because
they cut cleverly, without disturbing the root, whereas old or ill-toothed
beasts very often pull up the brier by the roots. Horses and sheep are not
so fit to be put upon this expedition, unless they be carefully kept or
tethered upon the field; for, although their teeth be sharp, yet we
evidently observe them to eat the corn and leave the grass untouched,
which is directly contrary to the design; and this their aversion is
probably raised from the roughness of grass in respect of the smooth and
sweet blade of corn." "This experiment," it is added, "will no doubt much
offend the timorous and unthinking part of mankind; however, it hath often
proven very beneficial both for keeping back the weeds and preventing the
lying of corns before they be full."
But even after the awal crop had, by the friendly aid
of the harrow and the young nolt’s teeth, battled through the initiatory
stages, and come off victorious over " yarrs," "skellachs,"
"sorrel," and all their aiders and abettors, it had yet another enemy to
contend with—viz., the wild oats, which, while they did comparatively
little harm among the two former crops, in the awal, we are told, "do very
notable mischief to their neighbour corn; for the wild grows up much
faster, and ripens much sooner than the tame, and thereby exhausts the
nutriment thereof. This never misses to render it both weak and thin, and
therefore ‘tis well worth the owner’s pains to endeavour by all means to
prevent this imminent danger of his corns, which will in a great measure
be done by cropping the wild oats how soon they come out of the hose, who
appear always about eight days before the tame. Thus is Providence so kind
as to tack that to their nature which is the mean of their own
destruction. Any one that is careful may perform this work, with the hook
in one hand, and grasp the crops with the other, which will be good
entertainment for cows; or, if he hath no mind to take the
trouble to preserve them,
let him fix a sharp-toothed hook in the end of a small pole or hazel rod,
and strike them down therewith, which is more expeditious, though less
profitable." But there was a possibility that all these rules—rules which,
their authors quietly insinuate, reason and experience alike
recommend—might fail of the desired end; and such contingency was not left
out of view. For, it is added, "If a field be so backward that it does not
answer by following the foregoing rules, it will be fit to lay it down in
gi~ass until it contract a body, which will take five years to ly."
It were scarcely profitable to follow the essayists
through the detailed rules for tillage applicable to infield and
out-field, and the method of toth-folding, and so on. For the bear crop we
note that "Ebb tilling is recommended to retain the dung as near the seed
as possible, and the remainder of the mold is to ly in the meantime to
contract a body." For the first crop after bear, "Let it be ploughed with
competent sap both deep and tight"—the
" two good reasons" for the deep furrow being
"to bury the grass roots," and "that the rested mold which lay idle
underneath last year may appear to act its part." Indeed, the Society, in
the case of out-field, at least, seem to have had some vague kind of
notion that each succeeding furrow should go a little deeper than the one
given the previous year, till, as they say, "the pan" were reached. The "faueh"
is justly declared to be "in all respects inferior to dung, seeing it adds
no benefit to the soil for the future, but only extorts, as it were, by
violence whatever productive qualities Providence has bestowed upon it."
And then they lay down one or two general principles which we may carry
along with us; thus :—" If we look into the
common way of managing husbandry, especially in those parts where nature
has been less liberal of her favours, we will have just reason to reprove
the inadvertancy of some in bestowing their labour without any prospect of
an adequate return, and condemn the inhuman practice of others for
wounding so unmercifully the sides of our common mother earth, without
ever offering any medicine. There is no excuse can be made to alleviate
the severity of this censure, except it he the prevailing humour of
landlords in exacting what they possibly can of their dependants, and
they, as the phrase is, must put at the rigs. However, it were a far more
equal way for masters to allow their fellow-creatures a reasonable
subsistence, their lands, in the meantime being improven, as well as
greater justice done to their own children, to succeed to a thriving
tenantry and well-managed ground. This would be a sure way to raise
a more plentiful fortune, and transmit their memory with more honour to
posterity, than the heaping up a store of money by those means that have
such an affinity to extortion, and seldom enrich the third heir."
One fancies that in these latter sentiments he hears
the voice of some nineteenth century radical, rather than that of the
aristocratic members of the small society of Buehan farmers of a hundred
and forty years ago.
We take a step onward and listen to the advice obtained
in a particular ease by an ardent improver. About the year 1757, Sir
Archibald Grant had addressed a set of queries to the hon. the "Society of
Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland," concerning the
most advantageous way of managing a field of sixteen acres, said to be "of
good black soil," "abundantly dry, or can easily be made so." It had
produced clover and ryegrass for three years, but could not be longer
pastured. The advice Sir Archibald receives for the treatment of the
field—. and it is given in the month of January—is to plough with all
convenient speed, "that it may have got three furs betwixt and the latter
end of April or beginning of May." Pease were then to be sown, the object
being to manure the field, and when they came to be in full bloom, they
were to be pressed fiat to the ground with a roller, or in absence of such
an implement, with harrows thrown upon their backs, or "an old door may be
used." The land was then to be twice ploughed, and sown out with twelve
pounds of clover and two bushels of ryegrass seeds to an acre. |
