IV. THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 17* 



Consumption.*- Though wbeaten bread is daily 

 becoming more common, barley meal is still 

 very much used, and is made into bread either 

 by itself, or, which is more frequent, mixed with 

 pease meal, and sometimes with dat meal, A 

 much greater proportion of the barley, however, 

 is consumed by the breweries and distilleries in. 

 the eounty. A considerable quantity is made 

 into pot-barley ; and what remains is exported. 



WHEAT. 



THAT wheat was cultivated in this county, 

 to a considerable extent, some centuries ago, 

 cannot be doubted, when we find that it con- 

 stituted a principal part of the revenues belong- 

 ing to the several religiouo houses in Fife, be- 

 fore the sra of the Reformation. At that pe- 

 riod, the wheat payable to the Abbey of Dun- 

 fermline amounted to 455 bolls. Upwards of 

 twice that quantity was drawn by the Archbishop 

 and prior of St Andrew's. And we may rea- 

 sonably suppose, that the abbeys and priories, 

 and other religious houses of inferior name, in 

 the county, would have their due proportion. 

 But to what extent the culture of this grain was 

 carried at that time, and what the mdthod of 

 management ; whether it continued :o be equal- 

 ly an object of attention after the Reformation, 

 or whether it suffered any periodical declines 

 and revivals, and what were the causes, we 

 have not sufficient information rightly to ascer- 

 tain. This, however, we know, that, during 

 Ui last twenty or thirty years, the cultivation 

 Y 2 



