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and of sheep in particular; and thirdly, the threshing-ma-chine, as invented by Mr Meikle. Of travelled improvementsmay be noticed the winnowing-machine brought into Scot-land from Holland, by the father of Mr Meikle, and said tohave originated in China . The plough drawn by two horsesand guided by one person, recommended by an Englishgentleman, fifty or'sixty years ago, to some proprietors inthe shire of Edinburgh, and now universal in Scotland . And,lastly, in the opinion of the friends to fallowing, the intro-duction of that practice into East Lothian , about one hun-dred years ago, on the suggestion of an English traveller, toMr John Walker, innkeeper and farmer at Beanston.
It may possibly be considered as presumptuous to pronouncedecisively on the merits or demerits of the fallow system, with-out a consecutive series of comparative experiments : But inthe opinion of the most enlightened agriculturists in all thewell managed districts of Scotland , and confirmed by theirexperience, “ A complete over-years naked fallow forms,on all clay soils, the indispensable basis of nil good hus-bandry.” In default of direct positive proof by experi-ment, the indirect negative proof may be considered asin a great measure conclusive of the question at issue.In the last years of a lease, a way-gohig tenant, as he is called,is naturally anxious to draw as much as he possibly can fromhis land, at the least possible expence. It is very customary,therefore, on such occasions, either to neglect altogether, orto slur over the fallow process, and to take ns many successivecrops as can be got, with as few ploughings as is practicable.On these occasions, it uniformly happens that the first cropsof the succeeding tenant have to toil for a scanty subsistenceamidst legions of weeds, and are proportionally worthless; andthat his first series of fallows, or fallow crops, have to be car-ried on at an unusual cost of time and labour, and consequentexpence. On such occasions may be seen potatoes and tur-nips growing on land full of the roots of couch, and corncrops so overrun with weeds, that their stubbles have the ap-