Besides this, there are some fine grass farms which keep no stock in winter, buying in ewes big with lamb in March, and selling both fat to the butcher, either from the grass, or from turnip, if necessary. The farms, also, which keep a stock of breeding ewes, sell off a portion of these at four, five, or six years, preserving ewe lambs to supply their places. These are commonly fattened on tur nips. The number of sheep in the county is estimated at 113,000.
Most of these farms, of course, have wool to sell. Part of this goes to Stirling, some to Hawick, but the greater portion to Yorkshire, where it is used for coarse cloths, and for serges, shalloons, and carpets. Ewemilk cheese has been, at times, made and sold on these farms, but the practice has been nearly abandoned at other times. There are a few of these farms where some black cattle and horses are reared for sale, but this practice is very limited.
The management of the arable portions attached to the sheep farms is as follows :—Where, as is commonly the case, a portion of land, from ten to thirty acres, surrounds the house, forming what is here called old croft land, the rotation is, 1. Turnips, with a portion of potatoes, and all the dung ; 2. Bear, or oats, with grass seeds ; 3. Hay ; 4. Oats, or sometimes bear. When the land is sufficiently extensive, and of a better quality, different rotations are in use, such as, 1. Green fallow, with dung; 2. Bear, with grass seeds; 3. Hay; 4. Oats ; 5. Pease, or else oats again after the pease. But, in this county, the excess of the mountain pasture over the arable land is so great, that it is not supposed that it would suffice for the winter feed ing of the sheep reared, though it were all appropriated to that purpose. The outfields on the sheep farms arc brought into occasional tillage, after liming, and folding the cattle and sheep on it.
Among the arable farms there are a few that are strict ly so, as we already remarked, having pastures attached. Among the chief of their produce is that of the dairy. Butter is sent for the supply of Edinburgh, and hence the only cheese is from skimmed milk. The new dropped calves are also sold off, as veal is not fattened ; but the old cows are sometimes sold in calf, or fattened, together with a few young cows and oxen. The farms, more especially of this kind, are those nearest to Edinburgh, as at Linton, Eddlestone, Newlands, and Peebles. This latter town also consumes a considerable part of the produce of the dairy.
The milch cows are much fed in the house in summer on green clover, and in winter with turnips, as is the young stock.
Where the arable farms are all fit for the plough, and properly inclosed, they are regularly cultivated ; the pas ture, in this case, forming part of the rotation. Thus, if the pasture is broken up, perhaps one crop of oats and one of pease, or two of each, are taken, followed by turnip, fal low with dung, barley with grass seeds, and hay, when the land is again thrown into pasture for a longer or shorter period. Other courses are, however, used according to the particular state of the farm and the inclosures.—There are about fifty threshing mills in the county.
With respect to the nature of the crops, turnips and pota toes are chiefly used for the purpose of green fallow. Va rious kinds of the former are in use, and the Swedish has lately been introduced with evident advantage. The culture of both are carried on according to the most approved me thods. Pease are sometimes sown upon outfields, as for merly remarked, or as part of the system of rotation upon the arable farms. They are seldom drilled. They are sown ih February, March, or April, but are an uncertain crop upon the higher lands. Oats are sown in various modes of rotation, and different kinds are used on different farms. Bear is the most common variety of barley, but some two-rowed barley is also raised. Rye was once rais ed in small quantity, but has been abandoned. Nor is wheat much cultivated, although fine crops are produced on the farms of Sir John Hay, near Peebles. The Tala vera wheat has here been successfully cultivated. Beans have been attempted, but in vain. A few tares are sown for green fodder, and cabbages sometimes come into the fallow crop. Flax is scarcely cultivated, except on a very small scale for domestic manufactures.
There is very little natural wood in this county, nor has much been as yet planted, at least on a great scale. The chief of these plantations have been executed by Mr. Mac kenzie, Sir John Hay, and Sir James Montgomery. The larch is found to thrive in the vicinity of Peebles ; yet the county affords abundant shelter to trees in many places. In some, the plantations have been executed in narrow belts on the hills, as affording shelter to the sheep. This practice is of very little value, as far as relates to the growth of the wood, however adapted to these incidental purposes.