Scottish Agricultural Revolution

[3] Before the 17th century, with difficult terrain, poor roads and methods of transport there was little trade between different areas of the country and most settlements depended on what was produced locally, often with little in reserve in bad years.

[5] Below them were the cottars, who often shared rights to common pasture, occupied small portions of land and participated in joint farming as hired labour.

[7] In the first half of the century these changes were limited to tenanted farms in East Lothian and the estates of a few enthusiasts, such as John Cockburn and Archibald Grant.

Turnips and cabbages were introduced, lands enclosed and marshes drained, lime was put down, roads built and woods planted.

[7] Although some estate holders improved the quality of life of their displaced workers,[7] the Agricultural Revolution led directly to what is increasingly becoming known as the Lowland Clearances,[9] with hundreds of thousands of cottars and tenant farmers from central and southern Scotland emigrating from the farms and small holdings their families had occupied for hundreds of years, or adapting them to the Scottish Agricultural Revolution.

His rival James Smith turned to improving sub-soil drainage and developed a method of ploughing that could break up the subsoil barrier without disturbing the topsoil.

[11][page needed] A handful of powerful families, typified by the dukes of Argyll, Atholl, Buccleuch, and Sutherland, owned enormous sections of Scotland and had extensive influence on political affairs (certainly up to 1885).

[14] The Lowland and Highland Clearances meant that many small settlements were dismantled, their occupants forced either to the new purpose-built villages built by the landowners such as John Cockburn's Ormiston or Archibald Grant's Monymusk[15] on the outskirts of the new ranch-style farms, or to the new industrial centres of Glasgow, Edinburgh, or northern England.