Mr. Smith on the Native Agriculture of the Lews. 213 



or other similar material, the gas is purified, whilst the material through 

 which it has boon passed, is converted into a very valuable manure. In 

 these singular adaptations of natural circumstances by the Lewsmen, we 

 have an example of the openness with which nature divulges to the 

 uiitutMi.'iI mind, those qualities of matter which are essential to the susten- 

 ance and comfort of man ; whilst a knowledge of them is only reached by 

 the man of science through a long course of varied experiment and 

 laborious induction. 



Thin impregnated manure is seldom dug into the ground, but is 

 generally applied upon the surface, when the plants of potatoes, or grain, 

 have made some advancement ; and the rush of growth, after the applica- 

 tion, is truly astonishing. 



The bulk of the soil of the Lews is deep peat moss ; but the cultivated 

 jiaris have a soil composed of the debris of the granitic rocks, in all con- 

 ditions ami mixtures of gravel, clay, and sand; but so scanty is the 

 availablo soil, that the cultivation is generally on the lazy-bed system — 

 the trenches, in many instances, occupying nearly as much space as the 

 ridges. The active soil is seldom moved more than four or five inches 

 in depth, and the sub-soil is never moved at all, yet, on this scanty soil, 

 good crops have been raised from time immemorial, with the simple and 

 never varying rotation of potatoes, bere, or bigg, and oats ; and there is no 

 more appearance of its exhaustion now, than there was a hundred years 

 ago. Almost the whole of the crop is consumed at home, and the bulk 

 of the debris is carefully kept and returned to the soil, with the addition 

 of the products of the turf fuel, and a portion of the debris of the material 

 gathered by the people, and by the cattle from the vast extent of muirland. 



There is one great source of manure which the cultivators near the 

 coast avail themselves of, and that is the sea- weed, which is a vast 

 advantage, as containing elements greedily devoured by the plants. Still, 

 without the peculiar management of their cattle manure, and the debris 

 of their household, with the addition of the peat fuel products, it is not 

 MMiUi that they could maintain the energies of their thin and ill-worked 

 soil, so as to enable them to maintain continuously so large a population 

 on so small an extent of arable ground. 



In prosecuting the improvement of the Lews, care will be taken so to 

 engraft the desirable improvements in domestic economy, and in agri- 

 culture, of the more advanced countries, without disturbing the peculiar 

 excellencies at present practised by the natives, whilst they advance in 

 all the essentials of an improved civilization. There is ample room, both 

 in the extent of country and in direct proportion of its unoccupied labour, 

 to afford to every family a comfortable and independent subsistence, and 

 to ward off those starvations which have hitherto periodically visited the 

 regions of the north. 



