 practice of farming, assured me that the stones, far from
being prejudicial, were serviceable to the crop. This philosopher had ordered a
field of his own to be cleared, manured and sown with barley, and the produce
was more scanty than before. He caused the stones to be replaced, and next year
the crop was as good as ever. The stones were removed a second time, and the
harvest failed; they were again brought back, and the ground retrieved its
fertility. The same experiment has been tried in different parts of Scotland
with the same success - Astonished at this information, I desired to know in
what manner he accounted for this strange phenomenon; and he said there were
three ways in which the stones might be serviceable. They might possibly
restrain an excess in the perspiration of the earth, analogous to colliquative
sweats, by which the human body is sometimes wasted and consumed. They might act
as so many fences to protect the tender blade from the piercing winds of the
spring; or, by multiplying the reflexion of the sun, they might increase the
warmth, so as to mitigate the natural chilness of the soil and climate - But,
surely this excessive perspiration might be more effectually checked by
different kinds of manure, such as ashes, lime, chalk, or marl, of which last it
seems there are many pits in this kingdom: as for the warmth, it would be much
more equally obtained by inclosures; one half of the ground which is now
covered, would be retrieved; the cultivation would require less labour; and the
ploughs, harrows, and horses, would not suffer half the damage which they now
sustain.
    These north-western parts are by no means fertile in corn. The ground is
naturally barren and moorish. The peasants are poorly lodged, meagre in their
looks, mean in their apparel, and remarkably dirty. This last reproach they
might easily wash off, by means of those lakes, rivers, and rivulets of pure
water, with which they are so liberally supplied by nature. Agriculture cannot
be expected to flourish where the farms are small, the leases short, and the
husbandman begins upon a rack rent, without a sufficient stock to answer the
purposes of improvement. The granaries of Scotland are the banks of the Tweed,
the counties of East and Mid-Lothian, the Carse of Gowrie, in Perthshire, equal
in fertility to any part of England, and some tracts in Aberdeenshire and
Murray, where I am told the harvest is more early than in Northumberland,
although they lie above two degrees farther north. I have a strong
