The agriculture of Forfarshire is for the most part , respectable, though modern improvements are not so general as in the Lothians and border counties of Scotland. Wheat which, according to Pennant, was a rare crop in 1775, is now cultivated to a great extent upon almost every variety of soil, to the height of 800 feet above the revel of the sea ; also barley, and all the other farm crops common in Scotland. In reaping the corn crops, there is a practice peculiar to this and one or two of the con tiguous counties called threaving ; the reaper is paid for his work not by the acre or by day-wages, but according to the number of sheaves he cuts down, or by the threave, which contains twenty-four or twenty-eight sheaves, the girth of which is specified. The advantages of this practice are, that women and children, who cannot perform full labour, find employment, working in families, on different parts of a field; while the farmer gets his crops cut low and clean, from its being their interest to fill the sheaf with the thickest part of the straw, which is always that nearest the ground. The unmarried men-servants, instead of boarding in the farmer's own house, often live apart in a place called the bothy, where they cook their own victuals.
No great progress has been made here in the im provement of live-stock. The garron, a small breed of horses, keeps its ground in the Grampians, where the number employed is much too considerable for the work they have to perform. The Lanarkshire, or west country breed, is common in the lower dis tricts. There is supposed to be more than 9000 horses of all kinds and ages in the county, which were valued, in 1811, at L.220,270. The cattle in the cultivated parts, when fat, weigh from 40 to 60 stones; and, in some instances, a great deal more ; and many more are fatted than reared, the practice on the grazing lands being to purchase them from the counties of Kincardine, Aberdeen, and Moray, and, after making them fat, or nearly so, to sell them for the markets in the south. They are, according ly, of a variety of breeds. Many of the permanent or stationary stock are without horns, and seem to be allied to the Galloways• Oxen were formerly employed in labour, but are now rarely used but in turning up soils overrun with broom and other shrubs. The permanent stock of cattle is said to be about 37,400, worth L.261,800. There are few flocks of sheep, except in the Grampians, and the highest of the Sidlaw hills, though almost every residing pro. prietor, and many of the farmers, keep a small num ber. The original breed is the small white or yel low-faced ; but the Linton, or black-faced, is the ripst numerous. The number is computed to be 60,000, and the value L.42,000. A herd of fallow deer is kept in the parish of Panmure.
Forfarshire contains five royal burghs, with a num ber-of villages and hamlets ; and a pretty large pro portion of its inhabitants are employed in manufac tures and commerce. The royal burghs are, 1. For. far, the county town, with a population, in 1811, of 5652. 2. Dundee, a place of considerable trade, where coarse linens or Osnaburghs, sail-cloth, and cordage, are manufactured to a great amount ; po pulation in 1811, 29,716. This town has construct ed two light-houses on the sands of Barry, contigu ous to the Frith of Tay, the one about 60 feet high, built of stone, and the other 40 feet high, of wood. The light on the latter is shifted, so as to correspond with the changes that often occur in the sands ; and the seamen, in entering the frith, make it a rule to keep both lights in a line, or both in one, as they express it. 3. Aberbrothick, or Arbroath, with a population of 9238. The Bell Rock, on which a light-house has been lately erected, is about 12 miles south-east from the harbour. 4. Montrose, popula
tion 8955. This is also a place of considerable trade, with much the same manufactures as Dundee. The self-electing system of the Scottish burghs was abo lished here very recently, and the magistrates are now chosen by the burgesses. And, 5. Brechin, containing 5559 inhabitants. This town was noted within these few years for its brewery of porter and ale, much of the former being sent even to London. To these may be added, Kirriemuir, a village con taining a population of 4791, Cupar Angus, of which, however, only a small part is in this county, most of it being in Perthshire, Glammis, Douglastown, and Letham. In 1808, 11,269,8671 yards of linen were stamped for sale in the county, the value of which was near half a million Sterling. About half as much more might be made for domestic use and private sale which was not stamped.
There are two customhouses in Forfarshire, one at Dundee, and another at Montrose. In 1812, there belonged to Dundee 147 vessels, carrying 13,080 tons, and navigated by 1077 seamen ; and to Mon trose, including Arbroath, Johnshaven, and Gour don, 9120 tons of shipping, and 597 seamen. Seven of the vessels, of more than 300 tons each, were then employed in the whale-fishery, the others in the foreign and coasting trade.
The fisheries on the coast of this county have not] been prosecuted with great success. The boats em ployed are generally small, requiring only four hands. Of late considerable quantities of herrings have been caught in the months of June, July, and August. But the river fisheries have become of great value since the plan was adopted, at the sug gestion of the late Mr Dempster of Dunichen, of con veying fresh salmon to London packed in ice. Mr Headrick estimates the produce of six of these fish eries, in 1810, at L.7450. The greatest salmon fisheries are in the Frith of Tay, and were carried on chiefly by stake-nets, a practice which was objected to by the proprietors higher up the river, and which, it is believed, has been since declared illegal.
Many religious and military ruins are to be found in Forfarshire. Near the cathedral of Brechin is a curious round tower, of which, though they be com mon in Ireland, only two, it is said, have been ob served in Britain, this, and another similar to it at Abernethy, in Perthshire. See BRECHIN, in the Encyclopcedia. At Arbroath are the remains of an abbey, founded by William the Lion, in 1178, and very richly endowed, where that parliament of Ro bert Bruce was held which addressed the celebrated remonstrance to the Pope, asserting the independ ence of the kingdom. A bill fort called Cater-Mun, in the parish of Menmuir, north-west of Brechin, is worthy of notice. Pennant thinks it was one of the posts occupied by the Caledonians before their en gagement with Agricola, at the foot of the Gram pians.
The county of Forfar sends one member to Par liament ; and the burghs of Forfar and Dundee, joined with Perth, Cupar Fife, and St Andrews, and Arbroath, Montrose, and Brechin, with Inverbervie and Aberdeen, choose two members for the Scottish burghs. It contains fifty-three entire parishes, be sides portions of three others, which belong to pres byteries that meet at Forfar, Dundee, Brechin, Meigle, and Arbroath, and which, with the presby tery of Fordun, compose the synod of Angus and Mearns. There is no assessment for the poor in the county. Its population, in 1800 and 1811, will be seen from the following abstract.