the same quantity of ground The first year you leave the third of your Corn-Land Grass you save 13 or 14 Bolls of Grain wherewith you used to sow it You also save the Labour of as many Aikers which with the price of the Seed may be reckoned as many pounds Sterling With this Money I would have you to make an Orchyeard as page 34 Then take the whole Dung you used to lay upon 6 or 7 Aikers of your Croft and lay it upon 3 Aikers only this three Aikers I think may be supposed to produce two Bolls more a peece than what they did formerly and in respect you are at no more Expence of Seed and Labour of an Aiker that produceth ten Bells than if it produced three except Threshing and the Straw will do more than pay that Cost wherefore I reckon you save 6 Boils free profit on this three Aikers this six Bolls 5 pound per Boll pays 30 lib of your third hunder Merks so 36 lib. 13 ss 4 d. remains unpayed for that year which the Landlord shall spare till you can pay it with the product of the Ground The second year dung other three Aikers on which you may also have two Bolls profit a peece the first three Aikers continue to have two Bolls more than ordinar for four years so you have twelve Bolls profit this year which pays your third hunder Merks except 6 lib. 13 ss 4 d. this added to what remained unpayed last year makes in all 43 lib. 6 ss 8 d. The third year you take in other three Aikers after the same manner on which ye have the like product which makes eighteen Bolls this year which payes the third hunder Merks and 23 lib. 6 ss 8 d. more so nothbing remains of your by gone Rent except 20 lib. The fourth year you take in other three Aikers on which with these nine already mentioned you have 24 Bolls profit which pays your third hunder Merks which the 20 lib. of by gone Rent and 50 Merks more Let this be laid by towards paying your Fine The fifth year dung that which you dunged the first year and so continue to go over the four parts of your Croft Successively The three years that are yet to expire before the end of the seventh year you have 24 Bolls profit per annum on y ar 12 Aikers of Croft whic yeeldeth 80 Merks a year more than your third hunder Merks three time 80 and the 50 Merks laid by the fourth year is 290 Merks which payeth your fine all to 10 Merks and to pay this 10 Merks with you have all the profit of your Orchyeard the Roots and Kail you have in it may be more profitable than ten Bolls of Grain for your Family which may be reckoned fiftie pounds The Flay of an Aiker and half may be worth eighteen poiunds A Crown a peece of twelve Sheep keeped on the Stuble of your Orchyeard is 36 pounds Honey worth 24 lib. this in all makes 123 lib. And when your Fruit-trees grow up you may have as much profit of them beside the Out-field all this while will be growing better by degrees as well as your Croft so that by this time you may have a Boll per Aiker more on it than ordinar And your Grafs being both better and much more of it providing you observe the Direction given page 38 You may make 200 Merks profit of your Cattle Moreover your Ground is but begining to be brought to a good Condition you can not expect it will be as good with once or twice Dunging as afterwards it may be Will either Man or Beast that is lean be made fat by a Meal or two I do not think in less than 24 or 30 Years the Ground can be brought to so good a Condition as afterwards it will be And Tenents get not long Tacks never think they will Improve it for other Men But even from the beginning you see there can be profit made abudance to encourage any body to let about it To be Brief I desire not to reckon every thing narrowly that may be made of it least the Landlords grudge But I offer to make it evident to the Conviction of any Reasonable Man That Farmers following this Method shall be inabled to pay their Landlords all that I have spoken off and shall have more profit by farr than they can have by following the present way Tho they did not pay one Sixpence for when all the above mentioned profits may be made without Hedging or Inclosures what profit may be expected when that pains is taken and Manure extraordinar provided as pag. 72 beside many other peeces of Improvement Now if this be true as I am perswaded it is then has the Tenent as much Gain as if he had his Room for nothing at all And it is not one Tenent or ten or hundered that receiveth this Benefit but all and every one through out the whole Kingdom may have this profit I do not mean every indevidual Farmer may make a like Advancement in their profits for in some places the Ground may be so much improven that triple ptofit may be thereof made at least Other places cannot so well be advanced above one third part but complextlie considered I am perswaded that the whole of it may be doubled Therefore I conclude Farmers in prosecution of this Project shall be as great Profiters as if they had another Kingdom equal to this bestowed them Gratis providing they changed not their Ancient Custom And the Heritors or Propriators of Lands are so farr from being at any loss that they reap a seventh part more Benefit than at present they do beside their present Rent is secured so that it is most visible that the Heritable Stock of the Kingdom may be more than doubled Now If a poor Man that cannot guide himself may be permitted to direct othets I 'le shew you how the Moveable Stock may be as much increasced and then I hope my assertion is proven Landlords to you now I direct my Discourse Perhaps ye may grudge I allow nothing but a seventh part where the Tenent has so much The Truth is Tenents have but a sorrie Life of it as Matters go at present and they had need of the greatest share of the profit beside they are at all the pains run all the Risque for tho they should not make all the benefit I propose still are they obliged to pay you But I say more You may accept of Little where you could expect nothing at all I suppose your Predecessors and your Selves have taken the best Measures you can to advance your Rent and more than it is at present you could never make it Now if I shall lay down a way how ye may advance it a seventh part which I dare almost promise in name of all the Farmers in Scotland providing you gave them long Tacks then have you so much Gain ye could never expect and seeing their profit
POSTSCRIPT TO HUSBANDRY Anatomiz'd OR An Addition to the Enquiry into the present Manner of Ordering Dressing and Manuring the GROUND in SCOTLAND For most Part Whereby it is further Explained and Applyed and several good Effects that may follow thereupon hinted at By the Author of the first Edinburgh Printed by John Reid at his Printing-house in Bell's-Wynd 1698. Courteous READER NOthing under the Sun is more the Desire of my Soul than the Universal Good of all Men living and for those of this Kingdom in particular being fully perswaded of the Truth of that Maxime No Man is born for himself But the Sense of my own Weakness has long obstructed my undertaking any thing in a Publick Manner pursuant to my Inclinations But of late having maturely considered the many mistakes this Kingdom doth generally ly under both in Relation to Husbandry and several other Things I have adventured to make an Enquiry into the Manner of Ordering and Dressing the Ground in Scotland and has Essayed to give some Directions for further Improvement thereof and further to explain and apply what is said I have now added these following Sheets The Summ of all that I have both first and last said doth terminat in this That if every one would take such Measures as easily they may the Honour Wealth and Power of the Kingdom may in a short time be advanced to double of what it is at present This may seem a very incredible Assertion but at prosent I shall no further insist in proving thereof The Calculation being made already a brief Hint given of the Means and Ways how it may be Effected But in the mean time I say if it be True it is worth the noticeing and if it be false it may easily be demonstrated to be so Such as have any thing to object against what is said or would have it farther explained I shall endeavour to satisfie So long as I abide in Town I shall attend at the Flanders Coffee-house for that end betwixt the hours of 10 and 12 in the Forenoon and 5 and 6 at Night I could gladly wish every Propriator and Possessor of Lands in Scotland had Copies of this Treatise which you may have at the foresaid Coffee-house at a reasonable Price but to give all of you Copies gratis my Circumstance do not allow neither know I any Obligation on me so to do But that I may go as great a length this way as possible without manifest prejudice to my self I shall leave two or three Copies of this Postscript for Publick Use at every Coffee house in Town And in what you can further desire of me in Reason your Commands shall be willingly obeyed Farewell Postscript SINCE I published these foregoing Sheets I had occasion to discourse with severals on that Subject and partly have learned what Entertainment they are like to meet with Some indeed seem to favour my Opinion beyond my Expectation and none that I have yet met with do disprove of any thing I have therein proposed except that concerning Housing of Sheep And to tell the truth any Arguments they have yet adduced to prove their Point are so far from making me alter my Opinion that I am rather thereby confirmed in the Truth of what I have said Nevertheless I find I am not fully understood by any nor the Project received with that Applause I humbly conceive it deserveth This may seem a great peice of Vanity in me to assert however I hope to make it manifest beyond Contraversie For I doubt not to assert by following the Measures I have proposed the Honour Wealth and Power of the Kingdom may be thereby doubled at least Perhaps it may be asked why I did not assert as much in the preceeding Sheets My Reason was I know Landlords are generally too severe upon their Tenents and if they see them in a thriving Condition they either heighten their-Rent or oblige them to remove so that Farmers are altogether discouraged to make any Improvement whatsoever Wherefore I thought it needless for me to mention the Landlords profit by this project that being a thing that he would see to of his own accord And I endevoured only to shew in general what benefite may be made by this Project leaving the Landlord and Tenent to share it betwixt themselves Yet in the 43 page I gave an oblique hint at the Landlords profit but I find General Doctrine is not the best I humbly conceive it may contribute more to the propagating of this Project to speak a little more particularly to the point and that not only by improving of Ground but also the Effects that may follow thereupon this being a feasible Way for making a Stock its certain that Stock may be improven also But I say seeing Landlord and Tenent must concur in the prosecution of what is here proposed both must share of the benefite otherwayes it cannot be expected they will unanimously push it on Therefore in the first place I would advise the Landlord to give the Tenent good security that he nor his shall not be obliged to remove for some three four or five score years if not to all Generations hereby the Tenent has Encouragement to make what Improvement he pleaseth the benefite is his own On the other hand I would have the Tenent obliging himself and his Heirs and Successors to pay at the end of every seven years one years Rent be way of Entry or Fine over and above the yearly Rent he now payeth I fancy at this the Tenent maketh answer for himself protesting this is too hard for him to do But I 'm afraid the Landlord be of another Mind anone However good Tenent I would advise you to give the Landlord no less providing you get security for continuing as above said on other Terms I will not desire you And I promise if you follow my Direction you shall not repent it When I desire you to give out a Sixpence if it bring in half a Crown you sustain no loss But so it is every Sixpence you give out this way shall profit you no less after the first seven years are over In the 27 page I suppose a Farmer possessing a Room of sixty Aikers to have alwise fourty of it in Corn on half Croft the other half Out-field and other 20 Aikers in Grass By the Corn he must pay his Rent for according to the common way of keeping Cattle on Dale Ground little or no profit is had of them as is shewed page 29 Now if by the profit of fourty Aikers of Corn you are able to pay 300 Merks of Rent then by the profit of 26 or 27 you may pay 200 Merks Therefore leave one third of your Corn-Land Grass and you shall pay no more but 200 Merks for the said two thirds you have in Corn unless I let you see a Visible Way how you may get the other third hundred Merk payed by and attour the Increase you formerly had upon
dale of people may be spared that are now imployed in Tieling and Dtessing the Ground except they be imployed in making Inclosures and even tho many be set to that kind of Work there will be abundance notwithstanding to labour in Manufactures There is no doubt if people apply themselves in good earnest that way Manufactures of all kinds may be much propagated in a short space For want of Stock that great obsticle being removed all other Letts may be easily overcome Now if every individual Propriator of Lands throughout the whole Kingdom may have a Years Rent everie seventh Year beside his ordinar Rent What vast Stock will this make in all Four hundered thousand pounds Starting and even but a part of that is thought sufficient to advance our African Trade And I suppose one Years Rent of all the Lands in Scotland may be four or five times as much What great Trade of Fishing and Land Manufactures may be thereby carried on And how much the more considering 't is not only so much Stock advanced at first But infallibly this may be renewed everie seven Years And how much this may promot the Honour Powet and Wealth of the Kingdom according to my weak Judgement may be more than can be easily credited untill the event prove it I doubt not but within 24 or 30 Years the Moveable Stock of the Kingdom may be tripled without going to Forraign Plantations to seek Wealth or digging in Mines for Ore By this project everie Man may digg Treasure out of his own Field for by observing the Measures proposed both Cattle and Grain may be greatly increased so that we may both live more plentitullie and have much thereof to export beside the uspeakable Advantage of Manufactures And that which makes this project the most feasible of all others is That one needs no Dependance on another except betwixt Landlord and Tenent and there is more Hopes to bring two to one mind than a great Society of people I may take my own Measures in Ordering and Dressing my own Ground whither others do the like or not But in many other projects there must be a concurence of a Multitude and perhaps the Managers sometimes prove not so faithful to all concerned as could be wished but in this it is otherwayes And another advantage in this project there is no Risque to run the worst that can befal no loss can be sustained by the Undertakers wherefore I conclude if this be not set about we need to try none other whatsomever To answer all Queries and Objections that may occur about this project would take more Room than can conveniently be allowed here therefore I refer that work to another place But in the mean time I shall answer some few which I judge may be most material Perhaps it may demanded What kind of Manufactures can be propagated in this Kingdom To which I say All sorts whatsoever For I know no Reason why that can not be wrought here that can be fashioned or performed with Mens Hands in any place of the World providing we have the same Materials and were bred too and taught in these several Arts and imployments and in no place without both of these can any thing be performed and even tho we stand want Materials of the things we stand in need of ought to be made or composed We may get these things unprepared much cheaper than the made Work We have two universal Objections against everything that can be said in perswadidg us to any thing we have not been accustomed to If it be said our Ground may be improven and the more to convince us of this Instance the Example of others It is answered our Ground is naturally more barren than other Kingdoms If we be desired to set about any Handy Labour then our Water is so bad that therewith we can neither Dye Bleach make Hats nor Mill Cloath To the first I say if our Ground be bad we take the wrong way to make it better for the best Ground in Europ being used as commonly ours is shall in a short time grow little better than our own for so long as it will bear Corn we plough it over and over till the product can scarce desray the Expence of Seed and Labouring and then we give it a smell of Manure only or else leaves it Grass a Year or two and as soon as it begins to gather a Soard up the red side of it again so that in effect they will neither let it bear Grass nor Corn. Now say I behold how much our next Neighbours in England manage their Ground to advantage more than we do Your Answer is Their Soil is Naturally better and their Climat warmer What is your inferrence For notwithstanding the Fertillity of their Soil and warmness of Climat they think it necessarie to plant Hedges to keep it warmer as page 64. And also they find it for their Advantage to make but a fourth or fifth part of their Ground Corn at once because they cannot get all of it sufficiently keeped in Manure But because our Ground is more barren and Climat colder therefore we need not use Means to restrain External Cold and may alwayes have one half or two third parts of it in Corn. Is this your inference Well good enough I think it needs no Answer To that Objection anent the badness of our Water I would fain ask a Question which may serve for an Answer to to this Do ye think the badness of our Water has any Influence upon a Man working in Iron or Wood that his Workmanship is not so good perhaps as else where it may be had Then say ye the people in this Kingdom must be much duller than others and therefore they can never attain to the like Dexterity in any Curious Art or Mechanick Operation with these of other places This I will be very loath to grant for the contrar I firmlie believe but indeed I will confess That commonly our Mechanicks are not so Dexterous or Expert as others But the Causes may be one or all of these First We have not the Instruction or Education of several others and can it be expected a Man that has not been Taught or Instrusted in such or such an Art can be an equal Proficient to him that has had that Help providing they are of equal parts take a Man of any of these Nations you pretend are most Expert and capable of Instruction and put him to do a peece of Work he never did or saw done can be perform it as one that is experienced with that sort of Labour Secondly It is the Vulgar Opinion Nothing that is made within the Kingdom can be so good as that which is brought from Abroad Nor will they give so much for it altho it be really better so the Seller knowing he cannot have a price for it if he should bestow Labour upon it makes it his Study how to affoord his Ware cheap seing the
Buyers will not bestow a price upon good Ware and that only because it is our own Home ward Making Another Cause why our Mechanicks are not so Dexterous as perhaps others are is They abide not closs at one kind of Work but from one thing to another so that they can't be so expert in several things as they might and undoubtedly would be in one thing But in may other places Mechanicks abid closs at one sort of Work so that they become not only expert as to the making of the Work good but also a far greater quantity of it I remember I heard a Nailer that 's a Nail-maker tell He knew a Man that was accustomed to work in nothing but Sparrowbills a sort of short Nails wanting heads he used to make a very considerable number of them he said to the number of 7 or 8 thousand a day and yet if he had been set to make common Nails he neither could make them good or any considerable number of them I doubt not but a Man abiding still at one kind of Work may both attain to a greater Dexterity in making of it fine and do much more of it than another that from one thing to another is continuallie turning But sayes some We have had Mechanicks from abroad and we have tryed to make several things and particularly Hats and Broad Cloath in this Kingdom and yet we cannot make our Ware so good as what we can have from abroad Who knows whether these Forraigners be the most expert of their Imployments in these places from whence they came or perhaps they may be subborned to conceal the Art of their Calling or perhaps their Masters find it not for their Advantage to bestow the Expense that is required in making the finest Ware because we have suck'd in that Tenet It cannot be fine enough if it be our own homeward making Moreover tho there be some few skil'd in these Imployments to direct yet they cannot do all the Work with their own hands and till these that assist them come to some measure of Dexterity it cannot be expected their Ware can be so good as otherwise it may be These that would propogat any new Manufacture must lay their Accompt to labour under several Disadvantages at first For instance when Sope Manufactures were first set up in this Kingdom their Sope was not so good as what we had from abroad by far These at Glasgow gave it over as a thing they could not accomplish these at Leith continued to work on and now have acquired so much knowledge in that Art that their Sope is better than that we have brought from abroad From whence I conclude if these in Leith had given over as these at Glasgow did it had been thought our Water in this Kingdom was so bad that Sope could not be therewith made whereas we see the Falshood of that Conjecture My Opinion is that what ever any may object against Water in other Cases it s altogether groundless I should think if Strangers were encouraged to set up here for themselves or some of our own Countrey Men sent abroad to be instructed in the knowledge of these Arts wherein we have least Knowledge it might be a Mean to propagat Manufactures And especially Fishing and Woolen Manufactures might prove to the Kingdoms Unspeakable Profit if they were promoted Yea there is no kind of Art or Imployment but what we might acquire Knowledge in if we had Means of Instruction And because formerly the great Cause of our living at home in Penurie was Povertie and Want of a Stock once to set about any Fru ga litie for a poor Man is still keeped poor because he has nothing once to put him in Capacitie to do for himself I say by this Project that Maladie is removed and we are put in a Capacitie to propagat Manufactures build or buy Ships and do many other things that may advance the Honour Pouer and Wealth of the Kingdom But sayes some Fine Cloath cannot be made here because our Wool is course Grant it is We may buy as much Wool as may be sour Ells of Cloath for the price of one Ell and beside if our Sheep were keeped as is proposed Chapter 5 our own Wool may be much improven then we save the other three parts of the Expence it would cost ns I know it will not be for a fourth part of the price to the Wearer but I mean the fourth part of the Money or Ware that is exported furth of the Kingdom to bring home Cloath may be saved and a great dale of People that are at present imploy'd in Tovling their Lives out working in the most industrious Way that can be invented to run out the Ground may be imployed in making the said Cloath and other profitable Imployments And because I told you I had met with some Opposition concerning the way of Stock keeping I have proposed I shall let you hear the most material Arguments any have yet adduced to prove the contrar Some acknowledge Housing of Sheep may be practicable in a few but not in great numbers others foresecing granting the first is the high way to overturn the latter manfully dispute against both the strength of their Arguments are these viz To put Sheep in houses makes them scab and the great difficulty of getting Litter or Bedding to them and also the Expence of build-Hutts will be great To the first I say if it be true then I confess its a very pungent Objection and because some bring in matter of Fact as a proof I shall show what I know of Matter of Fact to the contrar I have known 5 or six score sheep for a dozen or sixteen Years together put in Hutts every Night and not one of them was scabbed during that time Now if a hundred can be lodged so conveniently as may prevent this bad effect then a hundred thousand may also be preserved the same way providing the like Care and pains be taken on every hundred of them But I 'll tell you where the Mistake lyeth Some Stock-keepers that have tryed the Experiment to save a little Expense in building Hutts have crammed them so throng that one could not conveniently ly beside another neither did they take Care to have them lying clean and dry from whence this bad Effect followed When I desire a Man to hold out of a Mire on his Right hand I bid him not leap into a Ditch on his Left when I complain of letting Sheep ly out wanting Food amongst Frost and Snow page 94 I do not desire they should be used after this fashion but page 97 I recommend building of Hutts so large that the Sheep may ly at ease and have free Air and page 99 by all means to lay them clean and dry Others say when they buy Cattle to put in their Parks for fatning these that are accustomed to ly without take on flesh much sooner than these that have been housed To