52 



KINROSS. Mr. Tod writes : " From the agriculturist's stand- 

 point the principal cause of the decline in the agricultural 

 population is the laying down of land to pasture, and this the 

 farmer has to submit to on account of the low price of grain 

 and the high price of labour. From the labourer's standpoint, 

 the men being within reach of coal pits prefer the high 

 wages at the mines. Many of our best ploughmen seek this 

 employment. In fact, in the morning and evening trains, whole 

 carriages are occupied by men going to and from their work 

 in the various villages of the county. -The women will hardly 

 work in the fields now; they prefer house places, and many 

 prefer the town, where they have evening entertainments and 

 greater social advantages." 



LINLITHGOW. Mr. Glendinning writes : "It is significant 

 that the decline, with the single exception of shepherds, is 

 entirely in the first decade between 1881 and 1891 ; and this 

 can be accounted for by the fact that in the early part of that 

 decade it became evident that the low level to which prices of 

 agricultural produce had come down, was to become permanent 

 and not to be regarded as an adverse fluctuation. Accordingly, 

 the upland and secondary soils were laid down to grass, where 

 bailiffs would give place to shepherds/' The growing use of 

 labour-saving machinery has also had some effect on the num- 

 bers employed. 



MIDLOTHIAN. Mr. Davidson thinks that the principal cause 

 of he decrease from 1881 to 1891 was that, owing to the 

 decline in the value of produce, a considerable area of secondary 

 land was laid down to grass or worked on a longer rotation. 

 During the succeeding ten years the extension of the boundaries 

 of the city of Edinburgh absorbed a good many suburban 

 farms. Mr. Gemmell also gives instances of land being diverted 

 from agricultural purposes in the vicinity of Edinburgh. Mr. 

 McHutchen-Dobbie writes : " Most of the young men try for 

 other employments. From my own farms there are one jail- 

 warder, two railway- engine stokers, two signalmen, one railway 

 porter, one grocer, one ironmonger and one policeman. These 

 are first-class men born on my farms. It is said the half- 

 holiday is an inducement, but the hours of the above men are 

 longer that those of their fathers as ploughmen. The paper 

 and carpet mills are also strong competitors for the women 

 workers." 



PEEBLES. The decline is attributed to imports of agricul- 

 tural produce, to the present system of education in rural 

 schools, and the age up to which children are kept at school, 

 and to a lack of cottages. Mr. Ritchie writes : " Cottages 

 where families have been reared for generations are allowed to 

 go to ruins, no new ones are built, and thus population de- 

 creases. Rents of cottages, owing to the expense of building 

 and supplying sanitary necessaries, are too high for a working 

 man. Whole families drift to Peebles, Inverleithan, and 



