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An
Account of the Systems of Husbandry
Adopted in the more
improved Districts of Scotland
by The Right Honourable Sir John Sinclair, Bart, President of the Board
of Agriculture (2nd edition in 2 volumes, 1813) |
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Advertisement to the First Edition
I
HAVE at
length the satisfaction of laying before
the Public, an Account
of the Systems
of
Husbandry adopted in the more
improved districts of Scotland. It
was drawn up
at the request of a
most
respectable friend, (Sir Joseph Banks),
who thought, that such an investigation
would be productive of beneficial
consequences to the agricultural interests of the united
kingdom; and he urged, that it was
incumbent upon a native of Scotland, while presiding at the Board
of Agriculture, and
possessing all the means of information
which
that situation afforded, to undertake
the task.
Being occupied with many
other avocations, nothing
but the respect which I entertain
for the opinion of so zealous a friend to improvement, could
have induced me to engage
in so arduous an attempt. Indeed, the
labour and difficulties attending it,
have gone far beyond
every idea I could have formed of them. To
execute the task in a satisfactory manner, it
seemed to me necessary, personally to
examine several of the more
improved districts in Scotland, to converse
with the farmers in their own fields, to explain to them
distinctly, not only the general objects I had
in view, but also the particular facts I
wished to ascertain; and
to obtain from them, not hasty answers, to
questions suddenly put, but details,
maturely considered, and
carefully drawn up. The reader has now
an opportunity of examining
the result of the whole investigation.
The Author claims the merit only of
collecting, condensing, and digesting, the
important information which was most liberally
furnished. The credit of the knowledge which
this Work may contain, belongs entirely to the intelligent
and public-spirited Farmers
from whom that information has been
derived.
I trust that there are several
observations contained in this Work, which
will
prove of service in those districts of England,
where
the cultivation of arable land,
owing to the
attention of the farmer having
been principally directed to the
management of grass land, to the profits of the dairy,
and to the
breeding of stock, has hitherto been but a secondary object. At the
same time, it has been my wish, to make this Treatise useful also to
the farmers of Scotland; and
for that purpose, I
have
incorporated a variety of hints, which attention to English
Husbandry, and the communications of many respectable correspondents
in the southern part of the united kingdom, have enabled me to
suggest.
I cannot submit this work to
the consideration of the Public, without congratulating my country,
on the anxious desire to obtain agricultural knowledge, which now so
universally prevails in every part of the united kingdom. Indeed,
when I consider that zeal for improvement, and that thirst for
useful information, by which
the British Isles are, at this time so
peculiarly distinguished, I cannot entertain a doubt, that
Agriculture will soon reach a degree of excellence in this country,
which it has never hitherto attained in any other: and that the
merit of discovering the most effectual means, "of providing food
for man," the first of all political objects, will, in future ages,
be
attributed, to the skill, the spirit,
and the
enterprise of British Farmers.
JOHN SINCLAIR.
CHARLOTTE SQUARE, EDINBURGH,
24th February, 1812.
Advertisement to the Second Edition
FROM the anxiety to obtain
Agricultural information, another Edition of the Husbandry of
Scotland has become
necessary. In preparing it for the press, every
endeavour has been made to render it as correct as possible,
and to explain
several particulars which had not been sufficiently discussed in the
former impression. The Author more especially alludes to the subject
of Straw, the importance of which
cannot be too highly estimated, but which
had not been treated of at much length, either in the First Edition
of this Work, or in any former Publication.
CHARLOTTE SQUARE, EDINBURGH,
15th July, 1813. )
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