52 Notes and Sketches. 



ing from their own knowledge were, we are assured, " of 

 a nature too singular to be allowed to fall into oblivion. 

 At that time it appeared that great quantities of corn in 

 many parts of the country were still to cut down. 

 Some gentlemen who lived in the best parts of the 

 county gave it as their opinion that a boll of the best 

 oats might give about half a boll of meal." But others, 

 " especially in the higher parts of the county" were of 

 opinion that " it would require three bolls of the best 

 oats to give one boll of meal ; and many instances were 

 produced where it had not yielded one-fourth of that 

 proportion. From about thirty trials in the lands of 

 Mounie, which is one of the earliest places in the Garioch, 

 it was found to require three bolls of oats to give one 

 boll of meal on an average." 



It was computed, in short, that from, lateness, bad 

 weather, destruction by rooks, heating, and other casual- 

 ties, one-fourth of the crop was lost before it could be 

 got in, and that between waste and actual deficiency 

 little more than one-fifth of the usual quantity could 

 be used for meal. 



The computation made was, that while in an ordinary 

 year each 100 bolls of grain grown might be reckoned 

 in this way : 25 bolls for seed, and 75 bolls for as 

 many bolls of meal ; each hundred bolls of crop 1782, 

 must be reckoned thus 30 bolls for seed and 25 bolls 

 for waste, leaving 45 bolls, which would average only 

 18 J bolls of meal. The inhabitants of the county were 

 computed at 131,000, and the calculated allowance of 

 oatmeal to these was 300,000 bolls. " It was admitted 

 that the county used to supply its whole inhabitants 

 with corn in an ordinary year, and no more, as it ap- 

 peared from the Custom-house books, that the exports 

 and imports, including transportation coastwise in both 

 cises, were nearly equal on an average of years." 

 Instead of 300,000 bolls, the data submitted showed 

 only 79,000, say 80,000 bolls, making a .deficiency of 

 220,000 bolls. The crops in the southern parts of the 



