About 1780 the white fishing on this coast began to decline. Haddocks, which were caught in greatest abundance, totally left the coast, and for a number of years none were caught. The only fish caught during that period were ling and cod, and a few of other sorts.
When the report was written, 1792-3, the haddocks had begun to make their appearance again, but only in small quantities. There were doubts about the cause of the disappearance of the haddocks, whether for lack of food, or because they had been pursued by some voracious enemy. Porpoises, or gair-fish as they were then called, were very numerous, and very destructive to the salmon. They may have disturbed and frightened the haddocks.

The old Account also says — There were three villages in the parish, which were thus peopled — Drumsturdy Moor, 134; Monifieth, 175; and the Ferry, 250. The total population in the parish, of all ages, was 1218 persons, and it appears that at no former period was it greater than then.

Great changes have taken place in the parish since 1793, when the account was penned.

The parish, in common with most of the others in the county, had in many respects been in a very backward state up to nearly the end of the first half of last century. The account given in the old Statistical Report regarding the improvements in its agriculture by Mr Hunter, the proprietor of several lands in the parish shows the state in which it had previously been. The report very properly says that he is a gentleman whose name deserves to be recorded, as it was entirely owing to his enlightened spirit that the change on the face of the parish had been made.

Some years before 1750 he began to enclose land, and betwixt 1750 and 1752 began to use lime as a manure. In 1753 he introduced the culture of turnips, and in the following year that of potatoes. By fallow, dung, and lime he prepared his grounds for the crop, and he sowed them at the proper season with grass seeds. Now that his fields began to assume a fairer surface and a softer mould; but still their unpleasing form remained. The ridges were wide at one end, narrow at the other, and bent in various curvatures. They were soon rendered regular and straight.

His fields lay beside the road to the Parish Church, and the parishioners as they passed beheld their beauty and fertility with wonder. What they beheld they imitated, and many soon saw with satisfaction their own fields covered with a similar beauty and fertility. The old Scottish ploughs were dismissed apace, and there was not then one in the parish.

The old Account of Monifieth parish and village says : — As their situation is so salubrious, that multitudes resort every summer to the villages of the East and West Ferry for the benefit of sea-bathing, as the employments of few are sedentary, as the ground is nowhere marshy, as the access to coals is easy, the people are generally healthy. But it is of more importance to characterize the minds than the bodies of a people; it is of more importance to be told that, within the last 80 or 90 years, the parish has increased as much in religion and morals as in the arts of life, &c.