ADDENDA.

4 S3

ADDENDA.

No. I.

4

Additional Appendix to Chap. XV.

On the comparative Quantities and Values of theDifferent Kinds of Food used among theCommon People in Scotland .

By the Rev. Dr Skene Keith.

The great article of food used among the people of Scotland ,was antiently meal made from oats, and barley or bigg. Bothwheat and rye were used but partially; the former among thehigher ranks, and the latter during the winter season, chieflymade into sour cakes or Christmas loaves among the lower class-es. A small proportion of peas meal was used in those districtsin which peas were cultivated. The only vegetables in generaluse were cabbages and coleworts; and these were thickenedwith meal, and made into porridge ; or the juice of them, in aboiling state, was poured on meal, and made into brose, whilethe cabbages or coleworts were eaten along with bread. In thewinter months, the farmers’ servants in the northern counties,had their kail, or cabbage-brose for supper; and what remainedof the juice and coleworts, was next morning made into a kindof porridge, which was called tartan purrie. As only a smallquantity of these vegetables was raised, they did not save a greatproportion of meal; but as milk, in the winter months, wasscarce, before the introduction of the turnip husbandry, thesecoleworts and cabbages, boiled with a quantity of water, sup.plied the liquid proportion of food. In the summer months,when milk was abundant, there was a great saving of meal, e-specially in the Highland districts.

Now, instead of a few cabbages and coleworts, a great num-ber of vegetables ave raised; and of these, potatoes occupy thechief place in all houses, from that of the Peer, or great land-holder, to the peasant or cottager. Indeed, in the pastoral dis-tricts, along the west coast, and over all the Hebrides andNorthern islands, potatoes form the principal article of food forthe common people for eight or nine months in the year.

Since the introduction of turnips and sown grasses, much moremilk is obtained from good cows, fed with good grass in summer,