576

ON the arable land

county of Lanark, by Major Hamilton of Raplock, to-wards the end of the seventeenth century, but were verysparingly cultivated for more than sixty years. It is as-serted in the Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xviii.p. 282. that Mr Robert Graham of Tamrawer, in theparish of Kilsyth, and county of Stirling , was the first per-son in Scotland who cultivated potatoes in the open field, bydibbling and hand-hoeing. His first essay, in this husbandry,was in the year 1739, when he planted potatoes by means ofthe dibble, on about half an acre of croft, or old infield land,at Neilston in that parish j and he continued to carry on thepotatoe husbandry, with increasing ardour and uniform suc-cess, for many years, in that neighbourhood, and diffused theircultivation by his example in other districts, on lands whichhe rented in the vicinity of Renfrew, Perth, Dundee, Glas-gow, Leith, and Edinburgh . One instance of his success iarecorded on sufficient evidence, that in 1762, he planted onepeck of potatoes with the dibble, and in the October of thatyear, dug up an increase of 264 pecks.

As the neighbourhood of Kilsyth seems to have perseveredwith great industry and attention, in following the example ofMr Graham, it may not be unimportant to transcribe, whatmay be termed the Kilsyth aphorisms, respecting potatoe cul-ture, from the account of that parish, which furnishes a goodpattern of statistical information.

1. The kidney potatoe is there reckoned the most produc-tive and best tasted variety.

2. Ground that has never been broken up before, or, atleast, which has never produced potatoes, although not bet-ter manured than other land, is by much the most produc-tive.

3. Potatoe sets ought to be planted at the distance of eight-teen inches from each other, even when not drilled.

4. When not drilled, the plants ought to be carefully earth-ed up by the h<?e j when in drills, by the double-mould-boardplough.

5. When ley or grass ground is employed, the dung ought