78 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [ 



bESS. LXXXVl 



since 1870. Wheat, barley, and oats still occupy the corn- 

 fields, increasing or decreasing according to demand and 

 price. The tendency has been for grassland to replace 

 cornland, and the increase of corn fostered during the 

 years of war is already disappearing. Rye, the important 

 crop of middle Europe, has made some progress in certain 

 districts. There have been great changes in the varieties of 

 cereals, so that very few of those widely grown in 1870 

 are on the market now. To introduce an old variety under 

 a new name is not unknown, but as regards cereals there 

 has been a real change into new types with a higher pro- 

 duction or otherwise better for the farmer. The search 

 for new varieties was never more active than at present. 

 The potato was an established crop-plant fifty years ago. 

 Gerard described it about 1596, and predicted a great 

 future, but in 1700 it was still a despised plant " fit to be 

 grown in the worst part of the garden " (Evelyn). After 

 1750 the cultivation of potatoes rapidly increased, and 

 by 1850 Lawson had described and prepared models of 

 numerous varieties.^ From 1845 to 1875 growers were 

 much discouraged by the ravages of potato blight, but the 

 past fifty years have seen considerable progress in means 

 for checking that disease. Since 1870 the names of 

 potatoes have changed again and again, old varieties have 

 been replaced by new, and the present time is a period of 

 speculative activity when new varieties appear every year, 

 claiming to be immune from " wart " disease. In this con- 

 nection it is noteworthy how the departments of agriculture 

 have quickly tackled this serious disease, so that its ravages 

 liave never reached the disastrous " blight years " about 

 1870. Flax and sugar-beet are crops that can be grown 

 in Scotland, and their neglect as crop-plants may look like 

 indifi'erence. It is, however, mainly a problem of supply 

 and demand. Both crops entail mucli labour for the 

 grower, and the produce requires to be manufactured. 

 The factory depends on the grower, and the grower on the 

 factory ; and if the latter cannot repay the farmer, then he 

 cannot grow the crops. 



The past fifty years have brought a great change in the 



' A collection of Lawson's models is now in the Edinburgh and East 

 of .Scotland College of Agriculture. 



