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

INTRODUCTION
Ixi
He lost no time in setting about his task. On 31st
October 1734 he presided over the Baron Court, where all
the tenants and others were assembled ‘ in open court.’
From this point he showed no slackening in his endeavours.
He proposed founding a farming club at Monymusk, and
the notes he prepared,1 probably for a speech, show the
way his mind was working. ‘ Husbandry a science, and
how others have made rich by it ’ is one heading. He
urged the growing of turnips, potatoes, pease and rye
grass, and recommended the sons of tenants to go to
England to study farming. No further reference to the
proposed club has been found, so presumably it was never
constituted. Meantime he was repairing his house, carry¬
ing on improvements on the estate and planning an ex¬
tension of the Mains and the erection of new farm buildings.
The last-named was completed in 1738, and Patrick Downey
was installed as tenant for 21 years at a rental of 500 marks
Scots 2 (13s. 4d. Scots). This farm was later separated
from the Old Mains and was called Nether Mains.
Grant retained under his own management ‘ the heritor’s
farm,’ which was really part of the Old Mains where he
had been growing hay and practising summer fallow, ‘ an
excellent thing,’ he says, ‘ to kill the weeds, tender the
ground and enrich it.’ His Plan for Sowing, Spring 1738,3
shows that he proposed growing wheat, bear, pease, rape
seed, oats, turnips and artificial grasses. Several interest¬
ing points emerge. Wheat was to be sown in rows (here
clearly was the influence of Tull); barley, sown with grass
seed, was to follow pease ; pease was to follow wheat and
bear; turnips for summer and winter crops were to be
sown in all sorts of odd places—round hedges, amongst
hops, ‘ all corners & out places about Mains and Gairden,’
amongst rows of wheat, and amongst trees ; oats was still
Infra, p. 129.
2 Jjnfra, p. 33.
* Infra, p. 131.