224

ON LIVE-STOCK.

and the materials of manufactures, may, by selection andskilful management, return a much greater and more valu-able produce in beef, mutton and wool, from the herbageof our mountains. On the arable land of Scotland , suchsystems of husbandry have been adopted, as combine theproduction of animal and vegetable food upon the same farm,instead of pursuing either of these objects exclusively, and inseparate districts. The superior advantages of convertiblehusbandry, and alternate crops for the food of man, and of theinferior animals, can only be doubted by those who have hadno opportunity of obtaining accurate information. Thiscombination, indeed, in Scotland at least, is indispensable tothe profitable production of either corn or animal food, onall soils susceptible of cultivation. These distinct, thoughnot separate departments of husbandry, reciprocally contri-bute to the prosperity of each other; the revenue of thelandholder and cultivator is augmented; and a much greaterquantity of both sorts of food is sent to market for the gene-ral consumption, than could be obtained from land, the fer-tility of which is locked up in permanent pasture, or dissi-pated by perpetual aration.