Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

XXU INTRODUCTION.
in but a general way the comparative prevalence of the different winds throughout Scot-
land, and afford no hides whatever to it in peculiar localities. On the whole, the cli-
mate of Scotland, as compared with that of England, is cold, wet, and cloudy, occasions
lateness in harvest to the average amount of at least three weeks, and prevents the
remunerative cultivation of hops, and several other valuable vegetables, yet over by far
the greater part of the area of the country is to the full as healthy.
SOILS AND VEGETABLE PRODUCE.
The soils of Scotland, as might be expected from the peculiarities of its surface and
geology, are often very various in even a single field, and much more in extensive dis-
tricts. Yet they have, in many instances of both the excellent and the inferior, long and
broad expanses of uniformity ; and, while in aggregate character poorer than those of
England, they vie in their rich tracts with the wealthiest in the three kingdoms, and
have prompted and tutored, over their penurious tracts, a keenness of georgic skill, and
a sturdiness in the arts of husbandry, which have made Scottish farmers the boast of
Europe. The carses of Stirling, Falkirk, and Gowrie, most of the three Lothians ; the
Merse, Clydesdale, and Strathearn, large portions of Fifeshire, Strathmore, Annan-
dale, Nithsdale, Kyle, Cunningham, and of the low grounds along the Moray and the
Cromarty friths, and even some straths and very numerous haughs in the mountainous
districts, are highly productive, and can bear comparison with the best tracts of land in
England. According to Sir John Sinclair's digest of the productive soils, or of those on
lands fully or partially cultivated, the loams amount to 1,869,193 English acres, the rich
clays to 987,070, the gravelly soils to 681,862, the cold or inferior clays to 510,265, the
improved mossy soils to 411,096, the alluvial haugh or carse land to 320,193, and the
sandy soils to 263,771, — in all, as we stated at the outset, 5,043,450 English acres.
According to the same authority, the extent of plantations and of natural woods which
existed at the date of the digest, on lands not included in this classification, was, of the
former, 412,226 English acres, of the latter, 501,469,— jointly, 913,695. Plantations,
since that period, have been raised to a vast aggregate amount on the waste lands, and
disposed in innumerable tiny forests, clumps, belts, and rows, among the cultivated
grounds. Pines are the most common trees ; but, in later plantations, the hard woods,
in many instances, prevail. Though agriculture has, in most districts, attained bold
approaches to perfection, the crops, in the aggregate, are inferior in quality to those of
England, and considerably more exposed to risk. Grain of the same weight, raised on
Scottish and on English soils, differs in the proportion of the most valued elements ; and
fruit, according to its species, is richer now in Scotland and now in England, and of the
same species widely varies as raised in the two ends of the island. A fair view of Scot-
tish agriculture in its palmiest state, may be obtained by perusal of the agricultural
section of our article on Haddingtonshire. The grand characteristics of the aggregate
agriculture of the country are, in the words of M'Culloch, " 1st, The nearly universal
prevalence of leases of a reasonable endurance, and containing regulations as to manage-
ment, which, while they do not improperly shackle the tenant, prevent the land from
being exhausted previously to the termination of the lease ; 2d, The absence of tithes,
and in most cases, also, of poor-rates, and of all oppressive public burdens ; 3d, The
prevention of assignment and sub-letting by tenants, and the descent of the lease to the
heir-at-law ; and 4th, The general introduction of thrashing-machines, and the universal
use of the two-horse plough and one-horse cart." The dairy commands attention prin-
cipally in the counties of Ayr, Renfrew, and Dumfries. The annual produce of wheat
is estimated in value at £1,650,000, or 660,000 quarters at 50s. per quarter ; of barley,
at £1,470,000, or 980,000 quarters at 30s. per quarter; of oats, at £7,171,875, or
5,737,000 quarters at 25s. per quarter ; of potatoes and turnips, at £2,250,000 ; of flax,
at £128,000 ; of garden and orchard produce, at £416,000 ; or the total of agricultural
and horticultural produce, exclusive of pulse and the grasses, at £13,355,875. Pasture
on arable lands is averaged at £2 per acre, and estimated in aggregate value at
£4,979,450 ; and upland pasture, together with plantations and waste lands, is averaged
at 3s. per acre, and estimated in aggregate value at £2,100,000. According to these
estimates — which we borrow from Malte Brun and Balbi Abridged, as the most recent
and a very intelligent publication — the total annual value of the land produce of Scotland
amounts to £20,435,325. The gross rental of land, in 1811, was £4,792,243.