TTREY. AGRICULTURE. 33 



more than a third part of which is thus destroyed : 

 the taste of this bread is agreeable, although its com- 

 plexion is black ; but the practice is now becoming 

 rare. More usually the oats, like the barley, are kiln- 

 drjed in the ear and then ground into meal. The quern 

 is now rarely to be seen, as mills have been erected 

 in most of the islands ; but it is still to be found in some 

 of the smaller ones, forming a most laborious occupation 

 for the women, on whom this, as well as many other parts 

 of the economy of a highland family, falls. The several 

 sorts of grain are formed into cakes in nearly the same 

 manner, by tempering the meal with water and toasting 

 it before the fire ; an operation requiring a perpetually 

 recurring and daily labour. A portion of the barley is 

 sometimes converted into whiskey, and almost always in 

 an illicit manner : but this trade is in a manner engrossed 

 by certain districts, from which others are supplied by 

 means of a fraudulent commerce ; the division of labour, 

 but little known in the islands, having found its way into 

 this branch of their rural economy*. 



The cultivation of potatoes is practised in these islands 

 to a great extent, and with success ; and the effect of 

 it in bettering the condition of the people, and in in- 

 creasing their numbers, has, as in al> other instances, 

 been very great. It is, perhaps, not over-rating the use of 

 this root to say, that it forms more than two-thirds of the 

 food of the people. It was not introduced without diffi- 

 culty ; but such a breach once made in the philosophy 

 of a country is an earnest of the possibility of further 

 improvements when sufficient arguments can be produced 

 in their favour. Such arguments ought to be founded 

 on example and demonstrable success ; since these are 

 the only ones which. the condition of such a country 



* Since this was written, a change of the system of revenue, as it 

 affects the highland distilleries, has been effected by the legislature. It 

 yet remains, however, to be seen what its effects will be, as well on 

 these illicit practices as on the state of agriculture. 



VOL. I. D 



