The farm-servants are, with very few exceptions, married, live in cottages on the farms, and are paid' altogether, or nearly so, in produce, each having a Cow kept for him throughout the year. The occa sional labourers reside in the villages, which are scat tered over the county ; a ranch better situation for men who depend upon several employers, than if they were set down on particular farms. By this ar rangement, which is common to several other parts of Scotland, the labouring classes in agriculture pos sess all the advantages ascribed to cottage farms, without being exposed to those evils which both theory and experience assure us that a general sys tem of cottage farms is calculated to produce.
The breeding of live stock is almost confined to the Lammermuir district, which is stocked chiefly with sheep of the Linton or black-faced breed. On the low grounds, it is thought to be more profitable to buy the animals at a proper age than to rear them; horses from the west of Scotland, cattle from the north, and sheep from the hills of Tweeddale and Roxburghshire. Generally speaking, cattle are kept only in such numbers as to convert the straw into manure, getting a few turnips along with it, and are commonly sold in spring for the pastures of the south ; and, in summer, their clovers, except what part of them is wanted for bay, are fed off, as well as their turnips in winter, with sheep. The dairy is nowhere an object of consideration beyond the sup ply of their own domestic wants. ' Haddingtonshire has taken the lead in several im portant rural improvements. Lords Belhaven and Haddingten, early in the last century, wrote useful treatises on husbandry and %rests. In 1750, the first turnpike act for Scotland was obtained fer re pairing the post-road through it. Wight, one of its ' farmers, who, like Arthur Young, made tours for collecting agricultural information, contributed much, by his publications, to improve the practices of this and other parts of Scotland ; and Meade, an inge nious mechanic, first brought the thrashing mill into an effective state. Yet, in this pattern county, de fects have been pointed out, or admitted to exist by some of its most enlightened farmers. More land, It is alleged, might with advantage be devoted to grazing ; the drilling of corn might be found bene ficial in many situations ; the general use of two horse carts, in preference to single horse carts, is not thought to be sufficiently accounted for by the state of their roads; and a great part of the corn land is open, or very indifferently inclosed. The farm cot
tages, too, are not only very inferior to those of Eng land, but have not always kept •pace with the im provement of the other farm buildings. To these we may add, that a common of about 4000 sera, be longing to the royal burgh of Dunbar, seems to be condemned to perpetual sterility.
As very little of the labour and capital of Had dingtonshire is employed in manufactures and corn merce, it will be sufficient to notice these branches under the towns where they are carried on. Had ' dington, the county town, and a royal burgh, is si tuated on the Tyne, some miles from the sea;almost in the centre of the lower district, and sixteen miles east from Edinburgh. Excepting an extensive dis tillery, which has been recently erected, it has scarce ly any manufactures which find their way out of the county. Several trials have been made to establish a woollen manufactory, and a few others without success. But its trade, though nearly confined to a single article, is more considerable ; for, in its week ly market held on Friday, a greater quantity of grain is sold in bulk than in any town in Scotland. Some times nearly a thousand bolls of wheat alone (500 Winchester quarters) are brought there for sale in one day, and the actual sales in bulk, besides what is sold by sample, may be from 400 to 800 bolls weekly. The sales of barley, oats, peas, and beans, are also considerable; and all that is thus sold is for ready money. A great part of it is bought for the consumpt of Edinburgh. This market has been justly considered as one great cause of the prosper ous state of the agriculture of this county, as well as the principal support of the town itself; and yet no provision has been made for the accommodation of either sellers or buyers ; the carts loaded with grain standing crowded together on the streets, ex posed to all sorts of weather, and hardly accessible to the buyers without some degree of danger. In 1811, the town and parish of Haddington contained a population of 4370, of which'about half the fami lies were returned as employed in agriculture.