DUNBAR POTATOES 133 



remains, and shows how the old-time perfection in 

 handling the soil and keeping the land clean, which 

 has almost passed away, may be so combined with 

 modern improvements as to make high farming still 

 profitable. His extensive farm lies for some distance 

 on either side of the high-road and runs down to the 

 shore; throughout it carries the red sandy soil with 

 stones and fragments of limestone which we have 

 already described. The fields are large and divided 

 by stone walls ; hedges mean both waste of land and 

 perpetual sources of weeds. In these fields we found 

 the crop growing as well right up to the wall as in the 

 middle of the field, and one had to look about in order 

 to find a weed at all. The whole of the land was 

 under the plough, being much too costly to be left in 

 grass ; and the leading crop was potatoes, which are 

 taken every third year over the whole area. Of all 

 main-crop potatoes, Dunbar " red soils " command the 

 highest price in the market, often standing at los. per 

 ton above the price of Lincoln and other warp-grown 

 produce; and this reputation has prevailed for more 

 than a generation, back to the days of the famous 

 Dunbar " Regents." At the time of our visit no variety 

 was special to the district ; " Dates," " Factors," and 

 " British Queens," then waning in popularity, " Lang- 

 worthys," " Evergoods," and. "King Edwards" were 

 grown about Dunbar as elsewhere. But the Dunbar 

 potato possesses a pink attractive skin, and has the 

 special excellence of not turning black even when 

 cooked up for a second time after it has once been 

 allowed to go cold. This is a property greatly prized 

 by hotel and restaurant keepers ; in any wholesale 

 potato market you will see on the top of each bag a 

 few samples of boiled but cold potatoes, in order to 

 show how well they maintain their whiteness, and also 



