Sect. IP". THE COUNTY OF FIFE. IQl 



and hands can be spared, without the least in- 

 convenience. 



6lb, Produce. This varies, like crops of every 

 other kind, according to soil, culture, and sea- 

 son. Sometimes the produce is not above 20 

 or 24 bolls, and sometimes 60 or 70 bolls from 

 the Scots acre. The average may be 40 bolls 

 per acre. The barley firlot is used for measur- 

 ing potatoes, but is usually half heaped, or as 

 many allowed as can be laid on with a shovel. 

 When they are sold by weight, 24 Dutch stone 

 is allowed for a boll. According to this suppo- 

 sition, the quantity annually produced in the 

 county may amount to 240,000 bolls, which, 

 in point of solid nourishment, may be equiva- 

 lent to 80,000 bolls of oat-meal. 



jfb, Consumption. A very considerable pro- 

 portion of the potatoe crop is consumed by 

 horses, cows, hogs, and poultry. For horses, 

 they are esteemed a most excellent feed, are 

 usually given raw, after being washed, to the 

 extent of a peck. to each per day. They keep 

 the skin soft, and the belly open. They are 

 exceedingly proper also for milk-cows, and by 

 some are reckoned preferable to turnip ; as they 

 produce an equal quantity of milk, and give no 

 bad taste to either milk or butter. But as cows 

 are in danger of being worried or suffocated 

 with potatoes, and as some accidents of this 

 kind have happened, it would be adviseable to 

 cut or mash them before they are given. In 

 feeding hogs, nothing is preferable to the potatoe, 

 either for rearing or fattening. I have seen some 

 fed to a large size, and of excellent quality, who 

 got nothing but potatoes raw or boiled, except a 



