BB, Page 182. Comparative Produce from
Cultivation, and from Land in the state of Nature
To offer an agricultural comparison, taken from a
Highland glen, may occasion a smile; but I may be permitted to mention the
relative state of two glens high up in the Highlands, both of nearly the
same extent and quality of pasture and arable land, with no difference of
climate. The one is full of people, all of whom are supported by the
produce. The other glen was once as populous, but is now laid out in
extensive grazings, and the arable land turned into pasture. The
population of the latter, compared with the former, is as one to fifteen,
and the difference of rent supposed to be about four per cent. in favour
of the stock-farming glen. But in the populous district, the surface is
cleared, the soil improved, and the produce increased, merely by the
strength of many hands, without expense to the landlord either in building
houses or otherwise. In the grazing glen the soil remains in a state of
nature, and large sums have been expended in building houses for the men
of capital. The income-tax being removed, few direct taxes reach them,
horses or carts being scarcely at all employed; whereas, in the populous
districts, taxes are paid for horses, hearths, dogs, and for the
manufactures which the people consume. The stock-farmer ought to send more
produce to market than can be spared, where there are so many people to
support, but does this additional marketable produce go to the landlord?
Perhaps as much of this produce is laid out on the extended mode of living
in the family and personal expense of the man of capital, as is consumed
by the more numerous but more economical occupiers ; but that even they
can spare a full proportion, is evident from the rent and taxes they pay,
and the money required for their necessary supplies; the land, at the same
time, supporting a numerous population who improve the soil, and give
nearly as good rents to the landlord, and pay more taxes; consuming
manufactures in the same proportion, and adding to the employment of those
who prepare them; and producing from their small spots of land a
sufficiency to answer all demands; and, above all, to maintain a robust,
active body of men, ready to turn out in defence of the liberty and honour
of their country. With all this the earth is cultivated and grain
produced, and industry, and the improvements of men, are allowed full play.
In the grazing districts, again, with less than one-fifteenth part of this
population, few taxes are paid, few manufactures consumed, the soil
is left in the state of nature, and the country apparently waste.
Conversing on this point at different times with
judicious stock-farmers and graziers of capital, I asked if they could pay
a rent equal to that of the small tenants in the populous glens. They
answered, "Yes, certainly." Following up this question, I asked if they
could pay the rent, still keeping the people, having no cultivation, and
turning all the land to pasturage. The answer always was, Certainly not
more than half the rent. When further questioned, why then did they turn
their own farms to pasturage, when they saw and acknowledged the superior
advantage of cultivation? To this the only answer was, That pasturage was
more easily managed ; that, with ten men and twenty dogs, they would take
care of all the sheep and cattle in the glen, which, under cultivation,
supported 643 persons. In short, they fully acknowledged, that cultivating
the land made this immense difference; but then they could not cultivate
the farms without restoring the people, or employing a great many
servants. They insisted, at the same time, that pasture is better adapted
to wet climates, and more easily managed than cultivated fields,
overlooking the strong and acknowledged fact before them, as well as many
others of the same tendency. Their concluding argument was, that to
improve the soil was the business of the proprietor, not theirs. If
gentlemen allowed their lands to remain in a state of nature, without an
attempt to improve or continue the cultivation, the loss was the
proprietor's, and so long as they got their farms for the rents they could
afford to pay in pasture, they asked for no improvement. [It may not be
irrelevant to state, that, notwithstanding the recent depopulation of the
higher glens, their inhabitants have always been more athletic, better
limbed, and more independent in their minds, than the inhabitants of the
lower glens; the soil in many of the higher glens is deep and rich, and
when properly cultivated with lime, manure, and green crops, the corn is
strong and productive, failing only in fold and wet autumns. The upper
glens on Lord Breadalbane's, as well as those on many other estates, prove
the superior appearance of the people and capability of the soil.]
