COUNTIES OF EDIXBUEGH AND LINLITHGOW. 17 



cutting, and the dexterity of the people employed. Although 

 harvesters in general bewailed the introduction of reaping- 

 machines, which they declared took the bread from their mouths, 

 yet it cannot be denied, even by those sons of industry, that they 

 have been of great benefit to the farmer. In former times, when 

 the corn crops ripened in rapid sequence, or rather perhaps simul- 

 taneously, the utmost difficulty was experienced in getting them 

 cut before they were so ripe as to lose much grain by shedding. 

 More corn by far was also injured by exposure to weather, as 

 before the last parcels were cut and carried, the season was quite 

 advanced, stormy weather frequently set in, and the wind-up of 

 the harvest was rendered slow, tedious, and expensive. By the 

 use of machines two to three weeks of averagje weather should see 

 the grain all cut; in ten days more it ought to be carried. It is 

 a noticeable fact that, contemporary with the introduction of the 

 reaping-machine, the weather during harvest has become much 

 more fickle and less to be depended upon. Were harvest now, 

 as in days of yore, to continue eight or nine weeks, the chances 

 of securing the grain in anything like fair condition would be 

 considerably lessened. Kemp, Murray, and Xicholson's (Stirling), 

 with Jack & Sons' (Maybole) machines are most extensively used 

 in the Lothians. In Edinburgh, harvest hands are somewhat 

 high, owing to a gradual and growing scarcity of labourers, best 

 men being paid Ss. 9d. to 4s. 3d. per day, with food for a month 

 or sometimes longer. Women are paid 33. to Ss. 6d. per day, and 

 the ordinary farm hands have a month's meat in addition to their 

 regular wages. In tlie hill districts, rates are a little lower, as 

 the season is more advanced before harvest commences, and the 

 demand for extra hands is consequently not so great. The 

 cereal crop is carted with all despatch when it is once dry, as 

 the Lothian farmer never believes that his grain is safe until it 

 is under '' thack and rape." Round stacks are usually built and 

 dressed with as much care as if they had to stay for several years 

 rather than so many months. The wheat stacks that have to 

 stand over-year are mostly built upon pillars, to secure them from 

 vermin. Fires are not very common in the Lothians, but it is a 

 safe plan to insure the crop, as a spark from a cottage oi 

 passing train is sufficient to deprive the farmer of his whole 

 year's crop. 



Wheat. — The counties were more noted for the production of 

 wheat a few years ago than they now are. Still, with less than 

 one-lialf of the land cultivated than in Ayr, Kdinl)urgh has a 

 similar area of this cereal ; but Haddington, with 20,000 acres 

 less land under cultivation, lias twice the acreafje. In Linlitlitrow 

 com])aratively little ground is sown with wheat — scarcely one- 

 thirtieth of the land under the plough. The annexed table sho.vs 

 the acreage in 



B 



