280

ON INCLOSING LAND

SECT. VI.

PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE ADVANTAGES OFINCLOSURES.

The best illustration of the advantages derived from inclo-sures, is to be found in comparing the management, produce,and value of inclosed lands, with those that still remain open,and more especially with such as are occupied in run-rig, in-cluding in that comparison the conditions of the tenants andtheir cattle.

The farmers of open lands were wretchedly poor ; theircrops late and scanty ; and their half-starved cattle and horsesstood exposed, like themselves, shivering at every blast. TheQuiggs, a barony on the estate of Keir, on the road betweenStirling and Crieff ", immediately south from the bridge ofArdoch, having been in the situation above described, wassome years ago inclosed and sheltered by the proprietor. Theclimate became milder, the soil more productive, and the te-nantry more comfortable, and even affluent in their circum-stances ; as there is hardly now a farmer on the whole of thatbarony, who is not able to purchase the fee-simple of hisfarm '

In a cold and northern climate, the benefit of inclosureis very great; and their effects, when well planned, and pro-perly executed, in sheltering the land, and rendering it moreproductive, are hardly credible by those who have not expe-rienced them f.”

“ Although inclosing is not binding upon the Hebridianproprietor, he will yet find it for his interest to pay most par-

Report of Perthshire.

t Report of Aberdeenshire.