Sayfa 615 / 2651

Under this system of management, it is evident, even that part of

the lands of Scotland which is capable of good cultivation, could

produce but little in comparison of what it may be capable of

producing. But how disadvantageous soever this system may appear,

yet, before the Union, the low price of cattle seems to have

rendered it almost unavoidable.

If, notwithstanding a great rise in the price, it still continues

to prevail through a considerable part of the country, it is

owing in many places, no doubt, to ignorance and attachment to

old customs, but, in most places, to the unavoidable obstructions

which the natural course of things opposes to the immediate or

speedy establishment of a better system: first, to the poverty of

the tenants, to their not having yet had time to acquire a stock

of cattle sufficient to cultivate their lands more completely,

the same rise of price, which would render it advantageous for

them to maintain a greater stock, rendering it more difficult for

them to acquire it; and, secondly, to their not having yet had

time to put their lands in condition to maintain this greater

stock properly, supposing they were capable of acquiring it. The

increase of stock and the improvement of land are two events

which must go hand in hand, and of which the one can nowhere much

outrun the other.