26 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF chap. / 



Besides the places just now mentioned, there 

 are many thousands of acres, in this division, of 

 a good soil ; but covered, at present, with bent 

 and rushes, and short heath, totally lost through 

 want of shelter, or rendered useless by the super- 

 abundance of moisture. Were these lands dif- 

 posed into fields of a proper size, completely 

 drained, and surrounded and warmed with en- 

 closures and stripes of planting, they might be 

 brought, under the hands of skilful and spirited 

 improvers, to yield good crops either of grain 

 or grass, and rendered four times, at least, as 

 valuable as they are at present. 



Next to the district last mentioned, and north- 

 ward, we meet with another, which marks and 

 distinguishes itself by its situation and the dif- 

 ference of its soil. It extends from the mouth 

 of the Eden, along the course of that river on 

 both sides, till it reaches the shire of Perth. 

 "From Cupar westwards, it is a low and level 

 valley, expanding in some places to the breadth 

 of three or four miles ; and, from its situation 

 between two ranges of hills, was anciently called 

 the How of Fife. Along the middle, and on 

 the south side of this vale, the soil is generally 

 light, dry, and sandy. On the West, and at the 

 bottom of the Lomond hills, it inclines to gravel. 

 On the other side of this valley, as it approaches 

 the hilly ground on the north, the soil becomes 

 gradually deeper and stronger, in some places 

 clay, and in others rich loam ; with the excep- 

 tion of Eden's moor, which is a thin mossy soil, 

 with a substratum, in some places, of sand, and 

 in others, of cold till, and covered with short 

 heath. From Cupar eastward, the ground rises - y 



