Why is it called Scotland?
Scotia
The name of Scotland is derived from the Latin Scoti, the term applied to Gaels.[2] The word Scoti (or Scotti) was first used by the Romans. It is found in Latin texts from the 4th century describing an Irish group which raided Roman Britain.[3] It came to be applied to all the Gaels. It is not believed that any Gaelic groups called themselves Scoti in ancient times, except when writing in Latin.[3] Old Irish documents use the term Scot (plural Scuit) going back as far as the 9th century, for example in the glossary of Cormac mac Cuilennáin.[4]
History of agriculture in Scotland
Scotland is roughly half the size by area of England and Wales, but has approximately the same amount of coastline. It has only between a fifth and a sixth of the amount of the arable or good pastoral land (under above sea level), most of which is located in the south and east. This made marginal pastoral farming and fishing the key factors in the pre-modern economy. Its east Atlantic position causes very heavy rainfall: at the end of the twentieth century about per year in the east and over in the west. This encouraged the spread of blanket peat bog, the acidity of which, combined with high levels of wind and salt spray, made most of the western islands treeless. The existence of hills, mountains, quicksands and marshes made agriculture and internal communication difficult.