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Essays Relating to Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Essays Relating to Agriculture and Rural Affairs Author:James Anderson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Commonable lands considered as an Obftruction to Agriculture. JL HOUGH the very phrafe commonable lands is not known in Scotland; either becaufe the praftice ... more »which gave rife to the name was not there perhaps ever in any cafe ftriftly Adopted, or, if it was of old adopted, it had been diftinguifhed by another name ; yet this praftice fo univerfally prevails, either in a greater or fmaller degree, throughout every county in England, that it comes forward in each of thefe furveys in a very confpicuous manner. From the fuppofed notoriety of the praftice, as I fuppofe, I do not find that one perfon, among all thofe furveyors, has fo much as attempted to give a definition of the phrafe. It is not difficult, however, from the notices concerning it that are fcattered through thefe reports, to form, as I hope, a tolerably juft idea of the meaning of the phrafe. Commonable lands I underftand to mean lands generally arable, at leaft in part, which belong in property to individuals who are known, andthe limits of whofe property are afcertained; but which, in regard to their culture and mode of cropping, are fubjeft tq certain regulations, which cuftom, for time immemorial, has eftablifhed, fo as gradually to have acquired the force of law,-?-. to which rules every individual occupying fuch property muft adhere, until thefe old cuftom fliall be abrogated, either by the unanimous con- fent of all the individuals having a right to thefe commonable fields, or by an exprefs ftatute, obtained with their confent, for the purpofe of annulling them, From a bare ftatement of the cafe, it is eafy to perceive that regulations, which were adopted at a very diftant period, when agriculture might be faid to be but in its earlieft infancy in thi$ jfland, and which were calculated to accord with a...« less