62" 1

making, hand-hoeing, and in corn harveſt, the many well pea- pled manufa&uring villages turn out numbers of inhabi- tants, who execute the farmers work at a moderate rate.

In a country poſſeſſed of theſe advantages, the land own- ers have a right to look for a ſuperior cultivation of their eſtates, and of courſe an advance of rents, which the farmer will be better enabled to pay, by the improved ſyſtems of huſbandry that may be introduced from other diſtri&s, eſpe-- cially from that part of Perthſhire called the Carſe of Gow- rie, where the ſvil, no ways ſuperior to that on the banks of the Forth, is rendered greatly more produdttive by the exer- tions and attention of the farmers, although in that quarter they labour under many diſadvantages, both in the acquifi- tion of manure and fuel, and(what 15 of greater impor- tance) in the limited demand, and conſequently inferior price for the produce of their farms.

Moors. The ſoil of theſe extenſive waſtes ſcems capa- ble of very little improvement in the way of huſbandry. Three important objedions to their culture may be fairly Itated. 77/2, The zhznnefßs of the foil, chiefy owing to the execrable cuſtom, prevalent in Scotland for centuries paſt, of ſkinning or paring off the ſurface or upper ſtratum of the ſoil, in order to employ the turf in covering cottages, or for- building folds or temporary fences for the cattle or iheep of the farmers adjoining theſe moors. The implement with which that miſchievous piece of work 1s executed, has by many thinking perſons been moſt appolſitely denominated <« the curſe of Scotland."'Second/y, The number of large fixed ſtones 1ying on the ſurface of theſe waſtes, the greateſt part of which can only be moved by the force of gun pow- der. And, third/y, The general wetneſs of the ſurface, which occaſions fo great an expence in making drains, as to Place the improvement of theſe ſoils out of the reach of any prudent cultivator. The only rational plan of im- provement for the extenſive part of this county now in ihe condition of moors, appears clearly to be that of con- 2 verting