SEED POTATOES . 139 



had naturally his own views and his own methods of 

 turning the land to profit, certain features were common 

 to the whole district. The standard rotation was a six 

 course as follows : potatoes, wheat, turnips, barley, 

 seeds, oats, but on most of the farms the seeds are left 

 down for two or three years, the land being kept in 

 grass longer as it becomes heavier and more elevated. 

 Wheat and barley not infrequently gave place to oats, 

 so that the acreage under oats was three or four times 

 that given up to wheat and barley together, while 

 there was at least twice as much barley as wheat. 

 Barley, especially towards the Forfarshire end of 

 Strathmore, is of excellent quality, and though the 

 comparatively late harvest rarely permits it to attain the 

 brightness of the best malting samples, the distillers 

 have provided a very good market for it until within the 

 last year or two. 



The chief money - making crop was, however, 

 potatoes ; they sell well locally, and possess also a 

 special value for seed ; most of the large English and 

 Lothian potato growers obtain their seed from this 

 district, where also are situated one or two well-known 

 raisers of new varieties. All farm produce, however, 

 commands very good prices in Scotland, and this 

 advantage in the local markets is itself almost enough 

 to account for the superiority of the rents to those 

 prevailing for the same class of land in England. On 

 the heaviest soil in the Carse of Stirling and Cowrie 

 potatoes are not grown ; some of the land has to be 

 bare fallowed, but not to the extent that was usual a 

 generation ago. All over the district, but particularly 

 in the Carse, meadows of pure Timothy grass are laid 

 down, a practice that one does not see farther south ; 

 the Timothy is allowed to stand for three or four 

 years and has the great advantage of coming to cut a 

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