1912-13.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 107 



uncultivated land referred to in the later account have been, 

 and are being, reclaimed and cultivated. 



An interesting note on the early tillage of the reoion 

 occurs in Dr. Grossart s History of the Parish : "A circum- 

 stance worth mentioning is that at the end of last century 

 (eighteenth) farmhouses were more numerous on the hkrh- 

 lying central ridge {i.e. from Cant Hills across to Moffat 

 Hills., the watershed of the Forth and the Clyde) than in 

 the lower and more fertile parts. At the present day this 

 is reversed. The cause is obvious : larger farms have been 

 created out of the ruins of the smaller. . . . On the flat 

 top of Paperthill Crags (865 feet above sea-level ) are found 

 the remains of old tillage, its age beyond the ken of the 

 present generation. On the Cant Hills, the highest land in 

 the parish, are to be seen the remains of a still more ancient 

 tillage, pertaining to a long-forgotten era." l 



The character of the soil has already been dealt with 

 under Geology. There are some good farms where satis- 

 factory crops are raised : while there are other farms where, 

 owing to the poverty of the soil, poor crops are harvested. 



WoocUo.rt'I. 



What natural woods exist are to be found along the 

 banks of streams, as. for example, on the South Calder 2 

 "Water. Shotts Burn. Forrestburn Water, and North Calder 

 Water. The others, except in the case of some of the 

 small birch formations, are of an artificial character, being 

 plantations of mixed deciduous trees, with conifers often 

 very numerous. 



Deciduous Tree-v — The beech (Fagus sylvoAico.. linn.) 

 is predominant, but most of the trees attain no great size, 

 many of them being of a restricted, contorted growth. 

 The woods of beech are small and occur in the cultivated 

 area, some of them running in a north and south direction, 

 thus serving as shelter and protection to the cultivated 



1 " But what struck him (the traveller) most was the sight of huge 

 yokes of oxen dragging the plough far up the steep hill-sides in almost 

 inaccessible places ; and on his asking why .' he learnt that the farmer 

 was obliged to till the dry, steep braes because the ground below was 

 hopelessly swampy." — EL *G. Graham, " Social Life of Scotland in the 

 Eighteenth Century." 



2 Calder = " the wooded stream." 



