Series 3 > Selections from the Monymusk Papers, 1713-1775

INTRODUCTION
Ivii
the adoption of improved farming methods on that estate.
Archibald Grant was, of course, the leading spirit. The
innumerable notes he has left reveal the working of his
mind. By his own experiments and by wide reading of
agricultural writers he increased his knowledge and gradu¬
ally worked his way towards better ways of farming. Men
do not usually pursue agriculture solely for the love of it,
and it is worthy of note that farming and land ownership
yielded handsome rewards in the eighteenth century. The
increase in population, especially after 1740, and the
growth of town life were at the root of its prosperity.
Grant tells us himself: ‘ There is as certain and large
esteats to be gote in husbandry as in any employment;
and where more probably than in this countrey where it is
little understood and ready sale and good prices for every
thing, & no bussyness of life is more rationall, more quiet
and agreeable, affords profit with greater certainty & less
riske, if but tollerably attended to without fatigue and
things put into methode.’ 1
Grant’s agricultural improvements followed two main
lines ; one was the adoption of the English fallow system,
and the other the planting of the new crops of turnips,
clover and rye grass. As the latter was fully developed
the fallow system was gradually superseded and a regular
rotation of crops established.
In England under the three-field system the arable lands
of the village were divided into three fields and one was
rested each year, when by repeated ploughings it was
cleared of weeds. Grant was evidently greatly impressed
by farming in England, and especially the fallow system.
As early as 1720 his friend Jaffray was at pains to study
English farming methods as he journeyed to and from
London. A few years later Grant instructed an English
Infra, p. 134.