1771. Very bad crop, ill secured, and heated. 1772. Rather late harvest, crop ill secured, medium; hailstones fell in June as large as nutmegs. 1773. Terrible storm in March, season favourable, crop tolerable. 1774. Dreadful storms in September and December, much damage on sea and land, late season, crop under average. 1775. Great storms in October and November, season good, prices low. 1776. Medium season and crop. 1777-78. Late seasons, crop indifferent. 1779. Great frost of 84 days, season good, early harvest, good crop. 1780. Good season, but not equal to last. 1781. Good season and crop, much shaking. 1782. Severe bad season in May and June, hailstones of immense size fell, frost in harvest, crops a failure. 1799. Bad season, poor late crops-meal 2s., hay Is. 4d. per stone, potatoes 8d. per small peck. 1800. At the end of the year-meal 3s., peasemeal 2s., potatoes Iod., hay Is. 9d.; dry summer, poor crop. 1801. Best seed time in the memory of man, season good, early harvest, crop plentiful. 1802. First eight months worst in remembrance, four last were good; late but plentiful crop, all well got in-beef is. per lb., mutton 9d., butter Is. 5d., cheese 9d., eggs Is. 3d. per doz., peck loaf 35. 2d., oatmeal Is. 3d., potatoes Is. 1803. Good crop, dry harvest, oatmeal Is. 4d. 1804. Last seven months good weather, very fine crops-oatmeal Is. 5d. 1806. Great drought in harvest, wet November and December. 1807. Poor crop-oatmeal 2s., hay 2s. 1808. Fine crop, well got in, crops above average. 1809. Good harvest, grain plentiful, but high prices-meal Is. Iod. to 25.; great fall of snow till it was nearly a foot deep, many trees broken down by its weight. 1810. Best harvest and wheat seed time remembered, no rain September and October-meal is. 6d., potatoes 9d. 1811: Great comet near Ursa Major 9th September, extraordinary rains, frost and winds in spring and early summer, medium crop. 1812. Crop not housed till September, plentiful but dear-meal 2s. 4d., potatoes Is. 1813. Good harvest, crops excellent-meal 1s. 6d., potatoes IS. 1814. Fine harvest, grain good, but little straw-meal Is. 5d., potatoes 9d. per 42 lbs. 1815. Plentiful harvest, safely housed-oatmeal Is. 3d., potatoes 9d., beef and mutton 10s. 6d. per stone, skim cheese 5d., sweet milk cheese 9d. 1816. Wet cold year, no sunshine, poor crop-wheat £3 10s. per boll, oats £2, barley £2 10s., oatmeal 2s., quartern loaf, Is. 5d. 1817. Worst crop ever known, August very bad. 1818. Plentiful crop, harvest begun 10th August-meal Is. 5d., potatoes Is. 1819. Trees early in leaf, but destroyed by frost in June, crop finished end of September plentiful and good-meal Is. 2d. Radicals in great commotion end of this year. 1820. Crop good and early-beef 10s. 6d. per stone, meal 17s. 6d. per boll, butter Is. per lb. The average rent of 36 farms, containing 2,252 acres, is £1 9s. 6d. per acre. Oats, barley, hay from sown grasses, flax, pease, beans, and a small proportion of wheat, are the principal crops sown. The usual rotation of crops in dry lands is for the first year a white crop; for the second year a green crop; on the third year the land is sown down partly with wheat, barley or oats; and in the fifth and sixth years, it is allowed to lie in pasture. In wet lands generally two white crops are taken, or one of them in flax, which is chiefly sown towards the east end of the parish. The other crops are as above. In the third year some farmers sow down with barley and ryegrass: and where that does not answer, they plant potatoes: in the fourth year there is a hay crop, and the fifth and sixth are pasture. Flax is not so much sown now as formerly. Flax, after paying expenses, may be worth from £5 to £6 per acre: oats at 5 bolls per acre, £3 10s.: wheat from £9 to £10: hay from £5 to £6 on clean land: barley, £5: potatoes, £16 per acre. The price of manure for an acre of land, if well done, is £8 25. The price of labouring it, £1. Dung is sold at 4s. and 4s. 2d. per square yard. There is 11⁄2 cubic yards in a ton. Horse and cow dung is sold in Kirkintilloch at 6s. per ton. About forty carts of dung are required for an acre of potatoes, which will cost in all about £10. An acre of potatoes, when laboured by the spade, costs about 1 10s.; for labour by the plough, LI IS. Calculating the expense of labour as above, by the plough, per day, there will be for 3 men, 6s.; 3 women, 35.; a plough and 2 horses, 12s.=1 IS. The best men servants for agricultural labour may be had at from £16 to £20 per annum, with board and washing; boys at from £4 to £10. The best women servants are hired at from £9 to £10 per annum; inferior, £6; labourers in winter earn 9s. per week; in summer, 12s.; masons, £I Is.; carpenters, 18s. The following are the estimated expenses of draining and improving one acre of mossy marshy land : Casting drains 8d. per rood, and soles for tiles, of wood, For delving, For putting one inch of sand on surface, Per Acre. In every 100 acres of arable land there may be 20 acres in oats, 8 acres in potatoes or green crops, 20 acres in hay, 6 acres in wheat or barley, and fully one-half in pasture. There may be in the whole parish annually about 615 acres oats, 246 acres potatoes, 615 acres hay, and 184 acres in wheat or barley, which out of 3,076 arable acres, leaves 1,660 for white and green crops, and 1,416 for pasture, which latter amount is probably a little below the mark. PRODUCE.-Proceeding upon the above data, the average gross amount of produce raised in the parish, as nearly as can be ascertained, will be as follows: Produce of grain of all kinds, whether cultivated for the food of man or the domestic animals, - £5,900 Potatoes, turnips, &c., Hay. Pasture, Flax, Thinning woods, Minerals, 3,800 2,000 1,500 200 100 2,575 £16,075 In 1845 the number of landed proprietors in the parish was about 128 with upwards of 105 tenants under them; but we shall give more particulars of the agricultural population when we come to the town of Kirkintilloch; town and parish being so mixed up that it is impossible to deal with them separately. The Roman Wall or Grabam's Dyke. This ancient work of labour on a large scale, passes right through the parish of Kirkintilloch, from east to west, a distance of five miles, and has formed a prominent feature in the country, besides giving the name to Kirkintilloch. When it was made or built with its forts, about the year 140,* the country, as is known from the accounts given by the Romans, presented an appearance totally different from its present aspect. There were of course no roads; and what met the eye were dense forests, broken only where some lake or green clad morass met the view; or where the higher hills lifted their heads above the line of vegetation. The wall was constructed by the Roman army, during the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius; acting under the command of his lieutenant, Lollius Urbicus, who lived in Britain about twenty years. There is no record shewing how long it occupied the troops in forming it, but 6,000 to 7,000 men must have been engaged in the work. Notwithstanding that the course of time, and the march of *Some antiquarians are of opinion that many of the forts were built in the reign of Agricola, about 81, and that Lollius Urbicus only strengthened and repaired them--but this is of little moment. All agree that he made the wall and the ditch. agriculture, have nearly obliterated every vestige of that great enterprise; antiquarians are agreed, that it is the best known of all the Roman remains in Great Britain. Its destruction—although sad to think of in some respects— has, by means of the numerous sculptured stones, altars, statues, coins, etc., found buried along its route-revealed its origin and uses; and although for ages it was only the subject of dim, uncertain tradition, its history is now better ascertained than that of many recent erections. At a place near where the canal crosses the Luggie, in the town of Kirkintilloch, an interesting discovery was made, on 28th August, 1893, of about 60 Roman coins, which were found in a sand-bank near the track of the old Roman wall. They were only fifteen inches from the surface, and are silver coins of about the size of our sixpence, although not quite circular. They are from 1,700 to 2,000 years old, and the busts of the different Emperors are remarkably prominent and clearly cut. The oldest of them belong to the reign of Cæsar Augustus, to whom reference is made in Luke ii. I, as decreeing that all the world should be taxed. Others belong to the period of Vespasian, about 70 A.D., while a number bear the superscription of the Emperor Hadrian, who reigned about 138 A.D. An iron spear point, with part of the shaft attached, was also turned up, and was found to be so hard that a file made little impression on it. The wall extended from the Forth on the east to the Clyde on the west, a distance of about 27 miles; and formed a rampart across the island, to resist the incursions of the wild Caledonians of the north; who appear to have then had the same turbulent and warlike spirit which has possessed their descendants, down till Prince Charlie's time in 1745, when their last gallant but unsuccessful effort was made. It is interesting to find from Roman historians that the Caledonians were then armed with broadsword and target, identically similar to those borne by the Highlanders at Prestonpans and Culloden. It is also stated that in |