ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 15 



in a position of which it may well be proud. Of course Fifeshire 

 has great advantages by the valuable treasures of its rocks, but, 

 after making all due allowance for the rental of minerals and 

 manufactories, the county stands very high indeed in a purely 

 agricultural point of view. 



It is somewhat difficult to ascertain exactly what the rise of 

 the rent of arable land has been during the past twenty-five 

 years, but we think we are not far wrong in putting it down at 

 25 per cent. From 185U to 1860 there was a large increase of 

 rent on all farms, the rise in some cases amounting to as much 

 as 50 per cent. This large and very sudden increase was attri- 

 butable chiefly to the high price of grain and potatoes during the 

 Crimean war. Almost every year, from 1853 to 1867, potatoes 

 at some time during the season reached the high price of L. 5 per 

 ton, and hence quite a potato mania arose in the county. Potato 

 land was rushed after, and fabulous rents paid for it; and it is 

 not too much to say that the step thus taken by a large number 

 of the Fifeshire farmers was the most unprofitable step that has 

 been attempted in the county during the last fifty years. Of this 

 subject, however, more anon. Since 1860 the value of clay land 

 has considerably decreased, owing to the low prices of grain for 

 the crops of 1862, 1863, and 1864, and since the latter year to 

 the increased cost of labour and other working expenses. One 

 county agriculturist, whose opinion is entitled to much considera- 

 tion, assures us that " there is no increase in the value of the 

 rent of clay land as compared with the rents of 1850, but that 

 the rent of good green crop land has increased 20 per cent.;" and 

 we have met with several others who coincide in this opinion 

 regarding the clay land. We could point, however, to several 

 clay farms that have been slightly raised since 1850, but, speak- 

 ing generally, the rise has not been large. In fact, much of the 

 clay land was so highly rented previous to 1850 that very little 

 more could be added without "rack" renting the tenants. Dur- 

 ing those few years that the Crimean war lasted the competition 

 for farms was so excessive that not a few were induced to offer 

 rents which they afterwards found themselves unable to pay, and 

 thus deductions had to be made in several cases, some before one 

 half of the lease was run. Had those fabulous prices that were 

 paid for grain and potatoes between 1853 and 1867 continued, even 

 the very highest rented farm in the county would have proved a 

 a most profitable speculation; but this could not have been 

 expected, nor, in fact, was it to be desired. During the past ten 

 years the increase in the rental in the Kirkcaldy district has 

 been no less than L. 42,5 16, while in the St Andrews district 

 the advance has been L.36,002. Manufactures and minerals have 

 swelled the increase in the Kirkcaldy district considerably; but 

 in the St Andrews district the rise is due almost entirely to an 



