How did the Scotch live before the introduction of Potatoes?

[SarahND]

From The Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday, November 11, 1846.

“HOW DID THE SCOTCH LIVE BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION OF POTATOES?

The failure of the potato crop this year makes the inquiry in­teresting, how our fathers got on before the introduction of that esculent. We have been at some pains to ascertain the facts. The inquiry does not take us back to any remote antiquity. The cultivation of the potato, to any great extent, is quite a recent affair with us. It did not become a thing of bulk and consequence till after the present century had commenced. Plough planting in many places dates from about 1790. The farmer did not then raise much more than served his family; the cottagers and villa­gers depended also on those they planted; and there were sel­dom any potatoes for either after New-year's-day. In towns they were used by some of the common people for only three months in the year—October, November, and December. Going back to the middle and early part of last century, we find that both potatoes and turnips were cultivated as rare vegetables in the garden, and were not brought to market. It is a curious fact, that on the introduction to field culture of the potato the great landlords were alarmed lest it should be the means of depreciating the value of grain—the staple commodity of the country. The effect, however, was the reverse—grain of all kinds having become in greater demand, with higher prices than at any former period. Let us hope the much dreaded repeal of the corn-laws will be equally harmless.

How, then, did the people subsist when the potato was a rare garden vegetable about a century ago? The ordinary diet of farmer and servant may be described by the questions asked viz: —Have you got your porridge? (breakfast.) Have you got your sowans? (dinner.) Have you got your brose? (supper.) Butcher meat was scantily used in the farm house, and of an inferior quality. Indeed, it was only such of the stock as were supposed in autumn to be so poor and weak as not to survive the winter, that were killed and salted; and occasionally a good braxy or sheep, that died very fat, improved the fare. Turnips rye-grass, hay, and the other resources for winter feeding of cattle, were then little used or known. The cheese made was very bad—hard as a grindstone, and, with the curds, imperfectly managed: the taste was bitter and sharp. Cream kept too long, and putrified by drawing off the thin part or wig, for drink, was converted into butter by the operation of the hand. Many old people still recollect the hand churning. Bear and barley was a good deal more cultivated than at present, and used for milk and other broths, bread, &c., and also freely converted into beer and whisky. Nettles, kail, and some of the roots not now used, with wild mus­tard seed ground into meal, were also used as food—the latter, of course, in scarce years. Malt kilns used to be common over the country., Of course, with the limited range, and very inferior husbandry of those days, and little food to supply gaps, dearths were much more common and disastrous than they can be now. The famine which lasted from 1697 to 1704, called the "ill years," reduced the people to a state of extreme suffering and privation. The winter of 1697 was so intensely cold, that birds, &c., died in great numbers. The scanty crops of these years were gathered from the snows of November, by which many people were frost­bitten, losing their hands and feet. The cattle died in the stalls, and dropped dead in the fields. Little or no meal could be got. To make that little go as far as possible, it was mixed up with wayside herbs and seeds of an unwholesome character, which were almost as fatal as absolute want. The deaths from pure starvation were numerous. Patrick Walker relates that the deaths and burials grew so frequent that the living were wearied disposing of the dead. It was quite a customary sight in Ayr­shire to see the bodies of people who died of starvation under the high thorn hedges. In one parish in the north only three smoking cottages were left. There is still a traditionary recollection at Inverness of a vision of poor famished wretches who came like spectres into the town, setting up a wail of misery that pierced the very hearts of the burghers while they were unable to help them.

Our old poor-law, with its grand principle of "take no­thing from the rich, and give to the poor," was exceedingly inef­ficient, few or no public measures were taken to alleviate the fa­mine. The session books of the time only record that it put a stop to drunkenness, fornication, &c., but do not mention any­thing extra being done to supply the poor. The length of this seven years' cycle of famine is accounted for by the want of proper seed corn, one bad year thus going to reproduce another. Thanks to our improved machinery, and extensive and now free commerce, such deplorable and lengthened starvation periods are not likely to happen, and such accidental losses as the failure of the potato crop bring not the death and dismay on the land they would once have done. We have gathered some inter­esting details regarding the double failure of the oat and potato crops in 1732, a year of great suffering and dearth, but these, and notices of more recent dear years, we reserve for another paper. Our authorities for the present statements are drawn from the "Old Statistical Account," and other sources.—Ayr Advertiser.”

Also carried in the Glasgow Herald and Dundee Courier

Hope that’s interesting,
Alan


(Posted by SarahND but really from Currie)

[Anne H]

Thanks for re-posting Sarah. I must have missed this when Alan (Currie) first posted. Very interesting indeed and the porridge and potatoes are still going strong along with a variety foods from many other countries. I wonder if our ancesters would have liked the food of today!

Regards,
Anne H

[Hibee]

I'm having esculents for dinner.

Hibee

[AndrewP]

I'm having esculents for dinner.

I had comestibles for dinner.

AndrewP