IG8

LANDS OCCUPIED IN COMMON

man or burgesS would be tbe proprietor of nine English acresof arable or pasture land, which would soon become valuablewhen possessed in severalty. Unfortunately, however, theconstitution of the burgh is not favourable to the improve-ment of the land belonging to it j for the lot of a burgess, canneither be inherited by a female, nor sold for payment of thedebts of the possessor ; but in default of male heirs, revertsto the community. So that all the evils attending forty-eightentailed estates of the greatest extent, are here experiencedby forty-eight small proprietors, (with the additional disad-vantage of being partly occupied in common); and the annualproduce or real value of 430 English acres of land is not one-third part of what it probably would be, if the whole werepossessed at a fair rent, and on a lease of thirty-one years,(which would be necessary for improving the hitherto un-cultivated common), by an intelligent farmer *.

3. In several of the mountainous and imperfectly cultivateddistricts of Scotland , where the land belongs to a single pro-prietor, the unarable or mountain pastures, are occupied incommon by all his tenants. What is arable, and under anycorn crop, is possessed in severalty by the small farmers; buteach of these has a right to send a certain number of cattleor sheep, proportioned to his rent, to those common pasturesof the estate ; and care is generally taken, both that the pas-tures are not overcharged with live-stock, and that every smallfarmer shall enjoy the privilege of mountain pasture, in a fail-proportion to the rent which he pays to his landlord for hispossession, as it is called, (for it is seldom denominated afarm, the extent of arable land being generally inconsiderable).Here the want of capital among the small farmers, is thecause of their occupying the hill pasture in common.. Butwhen more capital is acquired, and either more land is im-

• See Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. ii, p. 262, and 581, where someobservations are made on the peculiar political constitution of this small burghof barony, pointing out the disadvantages attending it, and fully proving thatwhat may be plausible in theory may not answer in practice.