In 1809, he contributed to the Transactions of the Highland Society a "Treatise on the Diseases which are incident to Sheep in Scotland".
Busby received two of the Highland Society's highest premiums; firstly for inventing machinery for ascertaining the nature of rock strata by boring, and secondly for developing a method of sinking through quicksands, clay and gravel beds.
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In 1830 he moved to Edinburgh where he became involved in the proceedings of the Highland Society, chose to become a member of the Royal Society and where he announced the discovery of a new mineral, a sulphide of cadmium, which was found in excavating the Bishopton tunnel near Port Glasgow and which is now known as Greenockite.