20 



than is grown on an equal area in any other part of 

 England. 



The potato is known but for two centuries, and little 

 cultivated in England for more than one. The introduc- 

 tion of this valuable exotic into Scotland is still later; 

 and the beneficial effects it rapidly produced, are well 

 authenticated in the report of the proceedings of the Agri- 

 cultural Society of the Stewartry of Kircudbright, 

 presented to me when I had the honour of being elected a 

 member of that respectable society. Mr. Maxwell of 

 Manches, a venerable gentleman of that country, born 

 in the year 1720, had been requested to report, so far as 

 his remembrance went, the state of agriculture in the 

 Stewartry of Kircudbright in his early days : the whole of 

 his report is very interesting ; I shall take the liberty of 

 transcribing the passage, where he mentions the introduc- 

 tion of the potato. 



It is not proper for me here to narrate the distresses 

 and poverty that were felt in the country in these times, 

 which continued till about the year 1735: — in 1725, po- 

 tatoes were first introduced into this Stewartry by WiL- 

 " LI AM Heyland, from Ireland, ; who carried 'them on 

 " horses' backs to Edinburgh, where he sold them by 

 " pounds and ounces ; — during these times, when potatoes 

 " were not generally raised in this country, there was for 

 the most part a great scarcity of food, bordering on 

 " famine ; for in the Stewartry of Kircudbright and County 

 " of Dumfries, there was not as much victual produced, 

 " as was necessary for supplying the inhabitants," 



That the spontaneous produce of the earth affords but 

 scanty nourishment to man, at least in our climates, is 

 obvious ; nor would the cultivation of our indigenous vege- 

 tables add much to our stock of food : the early inhabitants 



