TRANSACTIONS 



OF 



THE HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND. 



ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 



By James Macdonald, Special Rej)orter for the Scotsman, Aberdeen. 

 [^Premiuvh — Thirty Sovereigns. ] 



General and lntroducto7'y. 



The county of Fife has pre-eminent claims to the dignified title 

 of the " Kingdom," with which it is frequently honoured. It is 

 more largely surrounded by M^ater than any other county in the 

 mainland of Scotland; and few counties in the United Kingdom 

 are more self-supporting — so extensive and so valuable are its 

 manufactures, so varied and so rich are the treasures of its rocks 

 and the production of its soil. 



Fifeshire is attached to the mainland of Scotland only by a 

 narrow band on the western side, where it joins the counties of 

 Kinross, Clackmannan, and Perth. Its other three sides are 

 bathed in the waters of the ocean — the south by the Firth of 

 Forth, the north by the Firth of Tay, and the east by the German 

 Ocean. It lies between 56° and 56° 28' north latitude, the " East 

 Neuk" being in 2° 35', and the most westerly point in 3° 43' 

 west longitude. From east to west it averages about 36 miles, 

 and right down the centre from north to south it measures about 

 14 miles. It has been ascertained by the Ordnance Survey that 

 the area of the county is 513 square miles, or 328,427 acres. 

 About four-fifths of the whole area is under regular cultivation, 

 the greater portion of the remainder being under wood. The 

 county is divided into 64 parishes, a number of which are by no 

 means large. The population in 1871 was 160,735, and the 

 number of inhabited houses 27,056. There are in all 10,410 

 owners of land in the county, 8638 having less than one acre, 



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