PARISH OF BOTHKENNAR

I V.-INDUSTRY.

Agriculture.-In no part of Scotland is agriculture better understood, or pursued with more eagerness and success than in this small parish. The soil is so favourable for the production of grain, that there is not in it one acre of natural grass. Tile draining has, for several years past, been carried on to such an extent, that almost every acre of it has been subjected to this most important improvement, so important that the farmers assert, that they are paid all their outlay by the additional produce of the two first years. The mode of cropping is that of a six years rotation; 1. naked fallow; 2. wheat; 3. beans; 4. barley; 5. grass; 6. oats. Perhaps the ingenuity of man cannot discover a more important rotation for carse land than this, as a green crop intervenes between every two white ones.

Rent of Land - For several years past, the lands have paid principally a grain rent of from eleven to twelve bushels of wheat per Scotch acre, with, in very few instances, a maximum and minimum of from L.1, 5s. to L.1, 15s. per boll of four bushels, regulated by the fiars of the county.

Rate of Wages. - Farm servants are engaged by the half-year, at from L.9 to L.11. There are no day labourers in the parish.

Stock.-There is much attention paid to the rearing of horses for farm purposes, which are of a superior description. No greater number of cows are kept, than is necessary for supplying the family with dairy produce.

Produce.- Wheat and beans are the most productive crops. The average of wheat may be stated at six quarters per acre, and in some favourable seasons has amounted even to nine. The time of sowing is always about the month of September. The average of beans is from four to six quarters an acre. Barley and oats much the same as in the neighbouring districts. The hay raised in the parish is of a very superior quality, and brings readily 3d. per stone, in the Edinburgh market, more than dryfield hay. The average produce may be stated at 300 stone of 22 pounds per stone an acre. There are fourteen orchards in the parish; and the first of them appear to have been planted by the monks of Cambuskenneth, who understood gardening better than any other part of the community at the period in which they lived. The soil is particularly adapted to pear trees, which bear more abundant crops than in any part of Great Britain. The golden-nap, which appears to be indigenous, grows with all the luxuriance of a forest tree, and never cankers. Its value is so great, that single trees have, in some particular years, brought from L. 10, 10s. to L.12, 12s.; and a single acre has in some years given L.100.