C H A P T E R ^V 1 1. 



RESULTS OF CULTIVATION PERIODS OF FAMINE KING 



WILLIAM'S DEAR YEARS PICTURES OF THE TIME BY 

 PATRICK WALKER AND FLETCHER OF SALTOUN 

 EFFECTS OF FAMINE IN THE NORTH LANDS DESO- 

 LATED. 



WHEN we keep fully in view the prevailing system of 

 tillage and the implements with which the work was 

 accomplished, it is not difficult to understand how the 

 results in the way of produce must often enough have 

 been sufficiently poor to be some way short of satis- 

 factory to the tiller. The difficulty rather is to under- 

 stand how the soil in certain cases could have been 

 kept under tillage on any terms. We have already 

 seen something of the struggle that went on between 

 the arable farmer and the indigenous "growth " that 

 sought to re-assert its right to the possession of the 

 soil ; and it was undoubtedly creditable to the sheer 

 hardihood of our forefathers that they did not oftener 

 than actually happened give way before the perversity 

 of those less fertile parts of the stubborn glebe that 

 yet owned their full share of the effects of the pri- 

 meval curse, and allow the land to run again into a 

 state of nature. In ordinary times the products of 

 cultivation in the form of crops raised and reaped for 

 the sustenance of man and beast were frequently but 

 meagre. It is, however, when we look at what we 

 find recorded regarding seasons of dearth, or absolute 

 famine, from failure of the crops, or their destruction 

 through inclement weather, that we most readily obtain 

 a distinct picture of the harder conditions of life in 



