own, to supply him with animals. It is highly unwise of you to urge upon this class the adoption of a different system, for, without their aid, there would be empty stalls at Auchness. But in the production of grain you try to demonstrate that Messrs Watson, Dudgeon, and Gibson have sadly degenerated from their predecessors. In proof of this, you adduce the evidence of Messrs Brodie, East-Lothian, and Turnbull, South Belton, Dunbar, as given before a committee of the House of Commons, and quoted in the _Farmer's Magazine_ for 1814. You have given, however, a partial and one-sided sample of the evidence taken by this Parliamentary Committee. There are five gentlemen who gave evidence regarding the average produce of wheat per acre, two of whom only depone to the quantities of oats and barley grown per acre. It is in the article of wheat alone that the evidence can enable us satisfactorily to ascertain whether, since 1814, there has been an agricultural progress or an agricultural declension. Five of the agricultural tables in _Blackwood_ state the average produce of wheat. Wheat is the great staple article of the nation's farinaceous food--that grain upon which the Free-traders repose all their calculations, and to the selection of which you cannot object, as it is the only grain you grow at Auchness for the people. Well, let us put the five agriculturists quoted by _Blackwood_ in juxtaposition with the five agriculturists whose evidence appears in the Parliamentary Report of 26th July 1814. 1814. Bushels Wheat per Acre. Mr E. Wakefield, Devonshire, improved husbandry, 24 Mr J. Bennet, Wiltshire, do., 24 Mr J. Bailey, Northumberland, rent £2 per acre, 30 Mr Brodie, East-Lothian, 32 Mr Turnbull, do., 30 ---- Produce of five acres, 140 On an average of years previous to 1848. Mr Watson, _Forfarshire_, 32 Mr Dudgeon, _Roxburghshire_, 33 Mr Roberton, do., 33 Mr Sadler, Mid-Lothian, 32 Mr Gibson, do., 32 ---- 162 140 ---- 22