212 Mr. Smith on the Native Agriculture of the Lews. 



there are beds for a portion of the family — the guidman and his wife, 

 with the small bairns, generally sleeping in that portion where the fire is. 

 There is no vent for the escape of the smoke, and consequently there are 

 no drafts around the firo. The roof is so constructed as to permit the 

 smoke to sift through at all parts, so that when fresh fuel has been added 

 to the fire, you see the smoke escaping like steam all over the roof. 

 There is generally an opening at the farther end of the cattle portion, so 

 that some part of the smoke finds an escape in that direction, and carries 

 a sheet of warm smoke all along over the cattle, thereby imparting a 

 considerable degree of warmth. 



The winter keep for cattle in the Lews is extremely scanty ; and it is 

 well known to the scientific agriculturist that external warmth saves 

 food, which is equally palpable by observation to the simple Lewsman, 

 who, knowing no language but the Gaelic, in which there is no literature 

 — no magazine of ancient lore, save the traditionary stories of his chiefs 

 — no science — no knowledge of the practical facts constantly arising in 

 this age of improvement — he is left entirely to his own observations, and 

 to the practices gathered from the experience of generations of his 

 ancestors. On all these points the Lewsmen have ready reason for what 

 they do practise. They say that their cattle do not thrive unless they 

 see the fire, and smell the smoke. 



On the approach of the cholera, in the year 1832, they were compelled 

 to build up walls betwixt their cattle and the domicile ; but as soon as 

 the dread of the disease had fled, they pulled down the walls, that the 

 cattle might have the benefit of the fire. We shall yet see, in a more 

 improved system of agriculture in the low country, the application of 

 artificial heat, with a good ventilation for the general warmth of the 

 homestead, substituted for the present destructive mode of obtaining 

 warmth by the pent up atmosphere of a crowded stable or byre. Thus 

 taking another leaf from the typeless book of the Lewsman. 



There are a few small openings at the bottom of the roof to admit the 

 poultry, and a little day-light, through which a portion of the smoke 

 escapes, when the wind blows on the opposite side of the house. The 

 roof is composed of a scanty portion of timber, to maintain its form and 

 position, and the bulk of the covering is made up of the stubble and roots 

 of the grain crops, laid loosely on and thatched over similar to a stack. 

 When the crops are reaped, they are generally pulled so as to gather the 

 roots and stubble with the grain ; and after it has been fairly winnowed, 

 the roots and stubble are cut off with a knife, to be placed on the roof as 

 I have described. There the straw is subjected to the fumes of the peat 

 fire, and before the summer season, when it is to be used as manure, it is 

 thoroughly impregnated with the different volatile products of the peat 

 combustion, and forms a very valuable manure. The Lewsmen have 

 here anticipated another of the important discoveries of the present time. 

 A patent has just been taken out for an improvement in the purification 

 of gas, where, by the passing of the gas through saw-dust, chopped straw 



