ANDERSON, JAMES, LL.D., a writer on political economy and agriculture, was b. in 1739 at the village of Hermiston, near Edinburgh. He lost both his parents when very young, so that the management of a large farm, which had been in the pos session of the family for a long time, devolved upon himself. Recognizing the prac tical importance of a knowledge of chemistry to a farmer, lie attended the chemistry class in the university of Edinburgh, and brought the results of his study to bear on his profession. Ile invented, at an early period of life, the small two-horse plough without wheels commonly called the Scotch plough, which is generally admitted to have been one of the most useful improvements of agricultural implements ever intro duced. When only 24 years of age, he went to Aberdeenshire, where he rented a large moorland farm of 1300 acres. Here he remained for a considerable time, devot ing his leisure. hours to writing upon agriculture. His first attempt was a series of essays upon planting, which, under the signature of _Agricola, he contributed to the Edinburgh Weekly .31agazine. In 1780, the university of Aberdeen bestowed on him the degree of doctor of laws. In 1784, on account of his pamphlet, entitled Encour agement of the National Fls1meries, lie was engaged by government to make a survey of the western coast of Scotland, with special reference to that object. He next commenced
in 1791 the publication of a periodical called The Bee, which was continued for three years; in 1797 he went to London, where he pursued his literary avocations with such intense assiduity, that his health gradually gave way. He died on the 15th of Oct., 1808.
A. will deserve a place in any record which details the remarkable advances made by Scotland in agriculture and other sources of wealth in the latter half of the 18th century. And even in the history of ideas he will deserve a prominent notice, as his Beewi0 the type of many periodical miscellanies of a cheap nature, mingling instruction with entertain ment, which have since been published. It is also to be observed that, in his essay called A CoMparative View of the Effects of Rent and of Tithe in Influencing the Price of Corn (contained in one of his latest publications, The Recreations of Agriculture). he anticipated some important principles subsequently advocatbd by Malthus, Ricardo, and West, particularly the famous theory of rent.