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ON THE RURAL ECONOMY

spreading dung, lime, and compost; ‘also making and cleaningditches, drains, and cross or gavo furrows, assisting at thehay and corn harvest, &e. &c. Those farms which haveno cottages, or an insufficient number annexed to them, aresupplied with labourers from the neighbouring towns andvillages. These observations respecting labourers, apply tothat part of the country which has been most properly de-nominated the South-East Lowlands, comprehending thecounties of Roxburgh, Haddington, Linlithgow , Berwick andEdinburgh ; but it may likewise be extended to the countiesof Fife, Kinross, Stirling, Clackmannan, Perth , Forfar andKincardine; while in the counties of Aberdeen, Banff ,Moray and Nairn, where unmarried servants are generallyemployed, it is often found a difficult matter to procure asufticient number of labourers, either male or female, as thepractice of employing women in the labours of the field,during the spring and summer months, is not yet common;and a considerable portion of the time of many of the men, istaken up in digging and drying peats for the winter’s fuel.

In that part of the kingdom denominated the Pastoral Dis-trict, comprehending the counties of Galloway, Dumfries,Selkirk and Peebles, a scarcity of labourers has often beenfelt, unless when there is an influx from Ireland ; but thisis only what might naturally be expected, as, independentof the general preference given in these counties to un-married servants, the system of husbandry adopted, is moreconnected with the rearing and feeding of cattle and sheep,than the cultivation of corn. The farms consequently areextensive, and few hands are found necessary for their ma-nagement, in comparison of what would have been requi-red, had the lands been more generally under tillage. Be-sides, a farm of many hundred acres, all in grass, and un-inclosed, will seldom afford employment for a man in the ca-pacity of a labourer, for one month in the whole year; whilethe extent of farms precludes him from finding ready employ-ment with one farmer, when the work of another is finished.It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that an individual should