ON THE AGRICULTUKE OF THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 23 



"bred cattle, as with other farmers, invariably thrive best. Mr 

 Thompson sells off his fat animals in the months of April, May^ 

 and June, and receives from L.26 to L.30 a-head. Sometimes 

 from three to four score of sheep are wintered on the farm, and 

 a good stock of excellent Clydesdale horses is kept. The 

 houses and fencing are good. Since Mr Thompson entered the 

 farm, a few years ago, he has effected extensive improvements at 

 his own expense. He has made 2000 yards of road, erected a 

 turnip shed, and two covered cattle courts; has cleared out 

 1000 yards of old hedging, in order to enlarge and square up 

 fields; has planted some new hedges, built 1600 yards of stone 

 and lime dykes, and drained about thirty acres of laud. The 

 drains were cut about three feet deep and sixteen feet apart. 

 Mr Thomas Crawford holds several farms in the neighbourhood 

 of Dunfermline. He resides at Pitbauchlie, and is an experienced, 

 careful farmer. The soil on his farms is mostly tbinnish loam, 

 with a clayey subsoil. On part of his holdings he ]3ursues the 

 six-shift system, but on a large portion he has no regular 

 rotation. Wheat generally yields about four quarters per acre, 

 barley five, oats six, beans four and a-half, turnips twenty tons, 

 and potatoes eight tons. He manures heavily, giving twenty- 

 live tons of farm-yard manure and four cwt. of guano, or 

 dissolved bones, per acre for potatoes, and fifteen tons farm-yard 

 manure, with three cwt. dissolved bones and two cwt. of guano, 

 for turnips. He breeds no cattle, but buys in a great many, 

 partly to graze and partly to winter. About the autumn he 

 usually buys in a number of half-bred ewes, and takes a crop of 

 lambs off them, feeding both the ewes and the lambs, and send- 

 ing them to the markets. He also buys in a few half and 

 three-parts bred lambs towards the fall of the year, and feeds 

 the latter on turnips, while the half-breds are kept for grazing 

 the following summer. His farms are well-stocked with strong 

 young Clydesdale horses. The fences and houses are bad, but 

 the drains are in good order, having all been renewed by Mr 

 Crawford at his own expense. He farms very differently from 

 almost all his neighbours, inasmuch as he grows very little hay, 

 and keeps a large portion of his land in pasture for three, four, 

 and five years. In the parishes of Carnock, Saline, and Torry- 

 burn the soil, though not heavy, is friable and fertile, and the 

 farms are generally in a high state of cultivation. The system 

 followed is very much in accordance with that already noticed 

 on such farms as Ballyeoman and Mains of Beath. Turning 

 southwards from Dunfermline, and proceeding towards Inver- 

 keithing, we pass through a highly fertile valley, known as the 

 " Laich of Dunfermline." It bends down to a very low eleva- 

 tion, part of it being only about seventeen feet above the level of 

 the sea. In this valley Cromwell is said to have fought one of 



