For those with an interest in vintage and classic machinery it is the 20th Century which is of most relevance. Indeed, this is the century of choice for many with an interest in farming heritage in general.
With the exception of some steam engines, the odd stationary engine, and horse implements, large-scale artefacts from the 1800s are not that common.
However, smaller objects and printed matter can often turn up and let’s face it, if the Time Team can unearth objects from the Stone Age, then finding agriculturally related items from the 1800s is surely not out of the question.
Many readers may hold treasured family heirlooms from the period.
Books have been written recently on the period, but finding contemporary publications gives a richer flavour to the farming of the era.
It was a time when heavy horses were the prime movers on all farms, and steam engines offered power for the big jobs such as threshing, heavy haulage and contract ploughing and cultivation.
Apart from rudimentary bicycles it was Shanks’s pony that got people out and about, meaning that the range of travel was to the nearest town and no further.
Railways offered greater scope for those with time and money to travel, while the goods services brought supplies to and moved stock and produce away.
By the second half of the century communications became easier, with postal services, telegrams and daily newspapers.
These newspapers from the period give a great insight into the farming of the time.
One volume well used by historians was one of the first accessible books published on Scottish agriculture. It was written by the Rev John Thomson of Markinch and is entitled General View of the Agriculture in Fife with Observations on the Means of its Improvement.
Published for use by the Board of Agriculture in 1800, it gives a great insight as to the state of agriculture as it entered the 19th century.
Agriculture was the dominant occupation, although coal and the linen industries were gaining in importance in a time before the agricultural revolution took hold and changed the county forever.
At the time of its publication some of the land was unimproved, lying wet and strewn with rushes. Many acres were still unenclosed, while houses and steadings were only beginning to take shape with modern two-storey slate-roofed farmhouses being built alongside modern ranges of buildings, some of which were fitted with the new threshing technology.
The book states that 300 threshing mills were installed in farm buildings at the time.
Many of the other pieces of machinery described would be recognisable a century later.
Likewise the types of crops grown with oats, barley, wheat, potatoes, turnips, beans and pease all grown, while flax also had a sizable presence with 1,500 acres grown for the local linen industry.
Livestock comprised all the usual suspects including the now extinct Fife breed of cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, bees, poultry, pigeons and rabbits bred for food production.
Moving to the later years of the century, several newspapers have high agricultural content. An August 10 1876 Fifeshire Journal priced at 3d and published by Wm Hodgson & James Kyd of 17 Bonnygate, Cupar, had a front page full of farming adverts.
Several roups are listed including several by Cupar auctioneer Mr Welch, who offered growing crops of oats, barley, wheat and potatoes and secured hay at the farms of Uthrogle, Cassindilly, Brotus at Cults, and Balcormo Mains.
The latter sale also included a brood sow in pig and two reaping machines, one of which was “as new”.
The same auctioneer also advertises a roup at Higham and Lathones in Cameron Parish.
The sale was for stock, crops, implements and machinery for the estate of Thomas Methven.
Implements listed include a coup cart, two harvest carts, a reaping machine, grubber, two sets of harrows, one of which was the brake type, roller, drill plough and drill grubber.
Auctioneer JA Welch, operating from St Andrews, was conducting sales at Milldeans in Kettle Parish and Wester Denhead at St Andrews.
Cupar auctioneer Mr GL Robertson was rouping spare stock and growing potatoes for Robert Birrell at Cairnfield at Ladybank. Stock included 21 stots, four queys in calf, three milch cows, one mare and two work horses. The three varieties of growing potatoes being sold were Rocks, Regent and Hens Nest.
A Mr Bowman of Cameron was conducting a sale at Auchentrail in the Parish of Newburn near Largo which had 15 acres of Sandy oats grown after lea to be sold in 15 one-acre lots, and a Kemp & Nicholson reaper a season old.
Other auctions listed included Mr Whyte’s twice-monthly stock sales at Cupar, and Messrs Hay & Kyd at the Victoria Auction Hall in Perth who were both offering lambs. The Hay & Kyd sale had consignments from Pairnie, Balthayock, Lochelbank, Dron and Over Fingask.
Also advertised were several wool sales at Leith.
A North British Advertiser & Ladies Journal from the same year was a huge broadsheet containing numerous agricultural references. One article stated that eggs to the value of £3 million were imported into the country, with English hens said to lay 200 eggs per year while French and Spanish hens could only manage half that figure.
The Edinburgh Courant was founded in 1705, and the August 5 issue of 1876 contained adverts for the sale of several estates including the Barony of Leuchars, which stretched to 2,670 acres, containing the farms of Milton, Craigie, Castle, Rhynd and Cast.
There were also several properties in the village and mussel scalps on the shore of the Eden. Yearly rental income was listed at £5,000 and the lands were well stocked with partridges, hares and other low country game.
The railway station at Leuchars is on the estate and reference is made of the new bridge for crossing the Tay that was under construction at that time, meaning Dundee would only be 15 minutes away.
Another long-gone newspaper was the Field Farm & Garden, The County Gentleman’s Newspaper.
The August 6 issue of 1870 has many adverts for properties throughout the UK that were up for sale or rent, and much of the content is related to field sports, nature and gardening etc.
However, there is an article on horses at the Yorkshire Show at Wakefield. Market prices and poultry show results also feature.
Of greater interest is a December 4 1893 copy of the Farming World, which was to later be absorbed into the Scottish Farmer.
A strong feature of the adverts contained within include a large number of what could only be called quack remedies for livestock ailments.
A Messrs Young & Bethune & Co sale at Milnathort saw 30 fat cattle forward, with the best bullock selling for £20 15s.
Marshall & Johnston’s sale in Dundee saw hay reach £7 a ton, while the Crieff potato trade saw the Regent variety topping at 55 shillings a ton.
Illustrated adverts feature ploughs, hand threshers cake breakers barn fanners and wind pumps for sale.
All in all, a bit like today!