: ture. crop of flax. Potatoes, likewise, are an excellent prepa- Agricul ration and grass-seeds, sown along with the flax, will thrive as well, perhaps better, than after most other crops. The potato-ground is either not ploughed at all, or ploughed immediately after the potatoes are taken up. Clay-land, when designed for flax, is ploughed before winter, to expose it to the action of the frost, and thereby to pulverise it more completely. Seed from Holland, Riga, and Philadelphia, are chiefly sown. It is remarkable that the last of these is thought preferable in cold wet soils. Some proprietors, from a notion that flax is an exhausting crop, and because it affords no manure for the ground, have of late introduced clauses into leases, prohibiting more to be sown than is thought merely necessary for the use of the farmer's family. L is thought, however, that this anxiety, so injurious to the manufac tures of the country, is overstrained. All crops of grain are of an impoverishing nature; but it is evidently the interest both of proprietors and tenants to rear upon the soil that crop from which the greatest profit can be derived. If, in certain situations, this crop be flax, the landlord is interested to receive the higher rent which can be obtained by means of it than by any other produce. His attention ought not to be directed towards its utter exclusion, any more than to the utter exclusion of wheat, barley, or oats, but merely towards preventing the soil from being unnecessarily exhausted, by means of it, towards the close of a lease. In truth, however, any apprehensions of this sort are probably altogether imaginary. Flax will not flourish upon a foul or an exhausted soil. The tenant, therefore, who leaves land in such a condition, that it has been able to produce a valuable crop of flax, cannot be said to have left the soil in an improper state. A crop of oats i far more to be dreaded, be Agi cul ture. Horned cattle. cause that plant will flourish where nothing else can grow. It is even an error to say that flax produces no manure the chaff and weak seed of an acre is reckoned worth ten shillings; and the oil-cake of two bolls of seed, the produce of an acre, is twenty-two stone, equal to double its weight of hay for feeding; and the dung of cattle, while feeding on the oil-cake and boll-chaff, is much richer than farm-yard dung, two cart-loads of the former being reckoned equal to three of the latter. Rye-grass and red and white clovers are cultivated on almost every farm. A mixture of rye-grass and red clover is used for hay. As the crop is intended to be cut green, little or no rye-grass is mixed with the clover. Where permanent pasture is intended, the proportion of red clover is diminished, and the deficiency supplied with white clover and rib-grass. About 10,000 or 12,000 acres are annually under clover and rye-grass. This county has long been distinguished for the excellence of its breed of horned cattle. The prevailing colour is black. The horns are small, white, pretty erect, or at least turned up at the points. Their bones are small; they fatten quickly; are accounted docile, hardy, fit for work. They bring a higher price at Smithfield market than almost any other kind. Some of them have been fed to a monstrous size; but in general they weigh from thirty to fifty or sixty Dutch stones when about to be slaughtered. A good Fife cow, in the best of the season, gives from ten to fourteen Scots pints of milk each day; two of which pints are nearly equal to an English gallon ; and she will produce from seven to nine pounds of butter, and from ten to twelve pounds of cheese, per week, tron weight, for some months, or for about twenty-six weeks annually. But, excepting in the neighbourhood of the towns or large villages, the dairy is not a principal object with farmers. ture. Breeding upon the poor lands, and fattening upon the rich, Agricul are chiefly attended to. There are few flocks of sheep in the county, and these only upon the Lomonds and some other Sheep. hills, or on the Downs, called Links, on the north-eastern coast. Besides these, a few are kept in the inclosures belonging to gentlemen-farmers and others. The use of oxen for the draught is almost passed away, and horses introduced in their stead. The aversion to pork, which formerly existed among the lower classes of people, has of late greatly diminished, or rather ceased, and swine are to be seen about every farm-house, and cottagers rear considerable numbers of them; but nobody considers this as a principal object. In Fife considerable quantities of dunghil fowls are reared; and most farmers are bound by their leases to deliver to the landlord a certain number of them annually. Ducks are also very generally bred; but geese and turkeys are only to be seen about the houses of the gentry, and of some of the principal farmers. In Scotland, whether from the severity of the climate, or ignorance of the proper management, most people find it a difficult task to rear turkeys. They are extremely hardy when full grown; but with most people they are very apt to perish when young: hence they are always very high-priced. About one-third of this county may be considered as substantially and completely inclosed; the rest is either open or fenced in a defective manner. Hedge and ditch is the most common mode of fencing property. The climate of Fife is accounted unfavourable, like that Fruit of the rest of the eastern coast of Scotland, to the production of the larger fruits, that is to say, apples and pears. Gardens, however, are very numerous, and many of them extensive, and in a very elegant style. This is owing to the great number of opulent proprietors, who are resident, or ture. Agricul- have their family-seats, in the county. In these gardens, strawberries, gooseberries, currants, plums, and cherries of every species, are produced in great profusion, and of excellent quality. Apples and pears, too, are to be seen on walls, and standards and espaliers, in considerable quantity and tolerable perfection. Many of the higher ranks have hot-walls, hot-houses, and green-houses, on which the pine-apple, the grape, peach, apricot, nectarine, and many exotic plants, are cultivated with success. In all these, as well as in other gardens of inferior style, every kind of kitchen-vegetable is produced in great abundance. There are few gardens in the county, and none of these of any considerable extent, rented by gardeners for the purpose of disposing of their produce to the public. About twenty acres of ground are occupied this way in the vicinity of Kirkcaldy, but not near so much anywhere else. Most of the families in the towns and villages have little gardens, either rented or their own property, from which they supply themselves with as much garden-stuff as is necessary. Woods. In Fife no natural wood is to be found, or at least nothing beyond the extent of some trifling spots or patches, unworthy of notice; but the plantations around the mansion-houses of proprietors are numerous, and the wood mostly aged and valuable, consisting of ash, elm, beech, fir of different kinds, limes, and some oak. Those belonging to the Earls of Crawford and Leven are the largest. Several plantations, less extensive, have been rai sed in different parts of the county, particularly, on the north side, by the proprietor of Rankeiller and Mr Gourlay of Craigrothie; and on the south, on the estates of General Wemyss, Sir James Sinclair Erskine, and Mr Ferguson of Raith. These last are laid out with great taste in the neighbourhood of Kirkcaldy, and, from the ture. advantage of a variegated territory, are a fine ornament Agricul to the vicinity. Several tracts of barren ground and divided commons have been lately planted; but as the trees are yet in an infant state, they make little appearance. These young plantations consist of various kinds, such as oak, Scots fir, larix, beech, birch, ash, &c.; the kind always bearing the largest proportion that is judged most congenial to the soil. The larix seems to be in highest repute, as it agrees with almost any soil. The wood is found to be very valuable, and its growth more rapid than that of any other kind. As the want of shelter is one of the chief inconveniences under which the terri tory of this county labours, the utmost attention ought undoubtedly to be bestowed upon this particular form of improvement. No other difficulty stands in the way, excepting that which naturally and necessarily results from the undertaking itself, because there are now few or no undivided lands or commons in Fife. To this statement there is indeed one exception, consisting of the extensive commonty of the Lomond hills, that amount to considerably above 3000 acres of verdant pasture, free from heath, and producing the best grasses. It was formerly attached to the palace of Falkland, but has long been granted by the crown in common property to the surrounding proprietors of land. A Scottish statute authorises the courts of law to divide all commons, but makes an exception of commons belonging in part to the king or to royal boroughs. This exception has proved an obstacle to the division; and Scottish gentlemen are not accustomed, like those in England, to make applications to parliament upon such subjects. Few counties in Scotland possess a more abundant sup- Minerals. ply of valuable minerals than the county of Fife. From the Forth, northward to near the Eden, coal, lime, iron |