IN SCOTLAND.

177

Sect. 1. — Size of Farms.

It has long been a subject of much discussion, whetherlarge or small farms are best calculated to promote the in-terests ot agriculture ; and in other respects most beneficialto the community. It seems, however, to be a question thatin a great measure depends on circumstances,' and the an-swer to it must vary as these change. Hence, what is expe-dient or beneficial at one time, in any district, may not beso, at another period, even in the same district.

The circumstances on which the size of farms princi-pally depend are these : 1. The nature of the country ; 2. Thesize of the estates in it; 3. The capital, skill, and industry ofthe farmer; and, 4. Local circumstances.

1 . Nature of the country. —Scotland is a hilly country , andcontains much broken ground. It has not only a great di-versity of surface, owing to its numerous mountains, hills andvalleys; but it is divided by abundant streams of water, in-to very unequal portions of territory. In some districts, wherethe hills or mountains press upon the banks of the rivers, andwhere the valleys or meadows are narrow, only a small propor-tion of the land is arable, and the district is adapted by nature,for large sheep farms, as in the counties of Peebles, Selkirk,Dumfries, part of Roxburgh and Galloway in the south; andin Ross, Argyle, Inverness , Sutherland, and part of Caith-ness, on the west and north of Scotland . In the more flat andlevel districts, as in the south-east part of the shires of Rox-burgh and Berwick, and in the three Lothians, arable farms,from 300 to 900 acres are found in many places ; and therewe may look for an improved system of agriculture.—In otherdistricts, there is greater diversity of surface : rivers of dif-ferent sizes sometimes run through extensive meadows; andsometimes only through narrow glens. Thus, in the maritimeparts of the counties of Aberdeen and Banff , the farms contain-ing from 100 to 300 acres of arable land, are marked out by na-tural boundaries. In the inland and highland districts, owing

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