ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 35 



accommodation for agricultural labourers and working people 

 generally is now almost all that could he desired, the improve- 

 ment that has been effected in this matter during the past thirty 

 or forty years having been very great indeed. With a very few ex- 

 ceptions, the whole of the farms in tlie county are supplied with 

 servants' cottages, and the deficiency that still exists is speedily 

 becoming less. The houses of the labouring classes in the many 

 towns and villages which are dotted over the county are also of a 

 superior character, and are gradually being improved where 

 improvement is necessary. The general character of the farm- 

 steadings in the county is very good indeed. They are mostly 

 all large and commodious, a great many of them having been 

 erected since 1850. On almost all the large farms, and on many 

 of the smaller holdings, the cattle courts are covered, or at least 

 partially so. The advantages of a commodious convenient farm- 

 steading are now fully recognised on every estate, and it is a 

 special aim both of landlord and tenant to provide this great 

 desideratum. The value of covered courts has also been fully 

 established, and no farm-steadings are erected now-a-days with- 

 out them. We do not think that it is beneficial to have the 

 courts wholly covered, and in by far the majority of cases in Fife- 

 shire only about one-half of the court is under roof. The many 

 and various advantages of these covered courts are already so 

 well known to all interested in any way in agricultural matters, 

 that it would be needless to enumerate them here, suffice it to 

 say, that without doubt they form the most valuable of all the 

 modern improvements in the construction of farm-buildings. 

 So far back as 1850, covered cattle courts were to be found in 

 Fifeshire ; one, the first in the county if we mistake not, having 

 been erected at Blebo home farm about twenty-six years ago. 



Roads. — The county is particularly well supplied with roads. 

 At an early period of the county's history the principal public 

 thoroughfares were very good, and of late they have been con- 

 siderably improved, while the mileage has been greatly increased. 

 Accommodation roads, generally speaking, are excellent; while 

 almost every corner of the county is particularly well supplied. 

 There are seven road trusts in the county, and the total annual 

 income usually amounts to close on L.11,000, while the expendi- 

 ture is generally very nearly as large; the roads being kept in 

 excellent repair. Tolls still exist in the county. 



Fences. — Fifeshire being so exclusively a grain-growing and so 

 little a grass-producing county, it could not be expected that 

 fencing would form one of the leading features of its agricultural 

 development. Not only, however, does it not form a leading 

 feature, it is one of the most neglected branches in farming ; in fact,. 

 we think that there is no matter whatever connected with the agri- 

 culture of Fife which calls so loudly for improvement as fencing. A 



