THE CENTRAL LOWLANDS are economically the most important part of Scotland, and contain about 75 per cent. of the population of the whole country. The soil varies in fertility, but is generally very productive when of alluvial or glacial origin, or when derived from Old Red Sandstone or volcanic ash. The rainfall decreases from over 40 inches in the west of the region to less than 30 inches in the east. Hence, from the agricultural point of view, a distinction may be drawn between the western and eastern counties. In the former, over two-thirds of the land is pastoral, and less than one-tenth is devoted to cereals ; while in the latter just over one-half is pastoral and nearly one-fifth is under cereals, Fife and Haddington, the two driest counties in the Lowlands, together contributing one-third of the wheat crop of Scotland. Cattle raising and dairying are characteristic of the west, while sheep farming is more important in the east. Fruit is cultivated in many localities where the environment is favourable, but especially in Clydesdale and Strathmore. Roots are grown chiefly in the east.
On account of its more favourable climatic conditions, the eastern part of the Lowlands was the first to be settled ; and it remained the more densely populated until the development of the great mineral districts in the west led to the growth of large industrial communities there.
The coalfields of Scotland are practically confined to the Central Lowlands, which produce about 15 per cent. of the total output of the United Kingdom. The Carboniferous strata were deposited over the greater part of the rift valley, but subsequent folding in different directions led to the formation of a number of basins in which the coal was preserved at a time when it was being removed by denudation from the surrounding uplands. Of these basins the most important are the Ayrshire, the Lanarkshire (which includes the coalfields of Linlithgow and Stirling) and the Fifeshire and Lothian. The importance of the Scottish coalfields is due in part to the fact that they contain two groups of coal-seams, the lower one lying in the Carboniferous Limestone, and the upper one lying in the same geological horizon as the true Coal Measures of England. The Ayrshire basin, with an output of about 10 per cent. of the whole output of Scotland (which is just over 40,000,000 tons), stretches along the Firth of Clyde from Ardrossan to Ayr, and extends inland for a distance of twelve or fifteen miles. Much of the coal produced on this field is shipped from the ports of Ardrossan, Irvine, Troon, and Ayr, to the Belfast district of Ireland. The Lanarkshire coalfields, along with which may be included those of Renfrew and Dumbarton, are at present the most important in Scotland, and account for nearly 45 per cent. of the total output.
The bulk of the coal is obtained from the upper Coal Measures, which extend from Glasgow eastwards to the borders of Linlithgow, and southwards as far as Stonehouse and Carluke. The coal, which does not lie far below the surface, is easily worked, and is of great value for smelting and steam purposes, while some of it is especially valuable for the manufacture of gas. The coal seams of the lower Carboniferous strata have not been extensively worked in Lanark shire ; and in Dumbarton and Renfrew, where the greater part of the output is obtained from them, they do not appear to be nearly as rich as those of the upper Coal Measures. The Linlithgow and Stirling fields, which belong to the same basin as those of Lanark shire, have an output of about 5 per cent. and 7 per cent. respectively of the whole of Scotland. Up to the present time the bulk of the coal has been obtained from the upper Coal Measures, but recent developments have been chiefly directed to the exploitation of the seams in the Carboniferous Limestone. In the east of the Lowlands, the coal seams of Fife dip under the Firth of Forth and reappear along the coasts of Edinburgh and Haddington, and it is believed that the field is continuous under the Forth. The Fifeshire coalfield has recently assumed considerable importance, and the output of coal, which is obtained from both geological horizons, now amounts to over 20 per cent. of the total output of the country. Much of it is exported from Methil and Burntisland to Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. The Edinburgh and Haddington field has hitherto played a less important part than the Fifeshire field, and accounts for rather less than 10 per cent. of the total production of Scotland ; but within the last few years a number of new pits have been sunk, and considerable quantities of coal are now exported to the Continent from Leith. In 1904 it was estimated that the net available quantity of coal remaining in Scotland amounted to 15,700,000,000 tons. Of this, about 8,700,000,000 tons lie in Fifeshire, under the Firth of Forth, and in Midlothian and Haddington. In Lanarkshire itself the net available quantity was 2,600,000,000 tons, which, at the rate of consumption now prevailing, will be exhausted within a century and a half. It is very probable, therefore, that, within a comparatively short time, the chief coal-producing districts will be found in the east of the Central Lowlands, and not improbable that, within a some what longer period, there will be a gradual transference of manufacturing industry from the west to the east, so that the latter region will once again regain at least something of its ancient pre-eminence.