Patrick Shirreff

Born in 1791 and associated with Mungoswells in East Lothian, Patrick Shirreff was a Scottish farmer whose interests went well beyond managing land. Contemporary and later reference sources describe him as an early improver of cereals, noting his work in selection and hybridisation and his role in developing new varieties of oats and wheat.

Shirreff is most closely linked as an author to A Tour through North America (1835). He made an extended journey through Canada and the United States, then turned those observations into a book aimed especially at agricultural readers and prospective emigrants. Rather than writing as a romantic tourist, he focused on useful detail: soils, crops, prices, labor, and the real prospects facing settlers.

That practical approach is what still makes his writing interesting. He wrote from the viewpoint of someone who understood farming firsthand, so his book now reads both as a travel narrative and as a record of how one experienced Scottish farmer judged North America in the early nineteenth century.