176 REPORT ON THE AGRICULTURE OF PERTHSHIRE. 



Dundee Law, whilst the clays were in course of slow accumula- 

 tion. The quality of this heavy land varies greatly, from the 

 finest clay to a poor whitish " end clay," as it is called, which has 

 the double disadvantage of being very difficult and expensive to 

 work, and very uncertain in its produce, both as regards quantity 

 and quality ; and not being suited for green crop and grass, it has 

 less chance of improvement, though the deep draining of late 

 years, coupled with a more liberal application of manure and 

 lime, may ultimately improve its condition. 



In order to come to a proper consideration of the agriculture 

 of carse land at the present day, and to indicate the direction in 

 which improvement may be hoped for, it is necessary to take a 

 retrospect of the past, and the changes or progress that have been 

 made. It will not be necessary, however, for this purpose, to go 

 to a very distant date. About forty years ago potatoes were first 

 taken to the London market, and up to that date no very great 

 alteration had been made on the mode of farming in the carses 

 for a great length of time. Previous to that date the land had 

 long been worked on the same rotation of crops, the ruling prin- 

 ciple being to take as much out of it in the shape of grain crops, 

 and to put as little restorative matter back as would save the 

 land from utter exhaustion. In those days, though the same 

 perfection in implements of husbandry had not been arrived at, 

 the tillage of the land, it is believed, was fully equal to that of 

 the present day ; and it seems to be admitted on all hands that 

 the results, in the shape of grain crops, were often, if not gene- 

 rally, superior to ours. How far this inferiority in the present 

 day is attributable to the success of our predecessors, and the 

 system which we have been too ready to follow them in, will be 

 the subject of the following remarks. 



Forty years ago the carse rotation on fair clay land was gene- 

 rally a seven-shift, consisting of four grain crops, two of them 

 being wheat, and the intervening quasi restorative crops consisted 

 of beans, fallow, and grass, the latter cut for hay, except what 

 was cut green in summer for the horses on the farm ; and on the 

 better class of black land a four-course was generally practised, or 

 a five-course, if, after the wheat, barley was taken sown out with 

 grass seeds. In those days there was no guano or nitrate of soda, 

 and perhaps it was all the better for the former occupiers, and 

 for us who have succeeded them, that there were none of these 

 appliances ; but worse than that, there was really no good manure 

 made anywhere. The manure of the present day is not all that 

 can be desired, but certainly it must be better than it was in 

 these times, when, in windy weather, it required to be tied to the 

 carts with straw ropes. Then cattle were never regarded as a 

 source of profit, from which any appreciable part of the rent or 

 expenses was to be paid, and scarcely as necessary for maintain- 



