ON IMPKO YEMENIS ON THE ESTATE OF HALLHEAD. 273 



Government Drainage Money, which he was fortunate enough 

 to receive, and he obtained a second grant when the first one 

 was expended. Mr Beattie, the Government Inspector, took 

 great interest in instructing the tenants and the contractors to 

 abide by the government rules in cutting and buikling to the 

 dimensions required. The greater part of the drains were 

 opened by contract, but the building and filling was done by 

 special hands at day's wages, and up to the present day very few 

 of them have required any repairs. The leaders were all 4 feet 

 deep, the others 3| feet deep, with broken metal on the top of 

 the built eyes. A very successful experiment was performed by 

 the late factor, on the Mains of Hallhead, on a marshy bog of 

 20 acres, almost level, and dangerous for cattle and horses going 

 into it to pasture. The factor ordered all the drains to be cut 

 5 feet deep, 20 inches wide at bottom; in the centre of this 20 

 inches another foot deep of the moss was taken out by a peat 

 spade made for the purpose, and then 3-inch pipes with collars 

 laid in the bottom. With boards or green turf an opening of 9 

 inches was left above the pipes. This moss is now as dry a 

 field as any on the estate, but is very much sunk ; there is 

 not at present 4 feet between the surface and the collars and 

 pipes. This is one of the exceptional fields on the estate which 

 have been drained with pipes and collars; the rest were all 

 mostly done with stones, as they are very abundant on the estate. 

 All the tenants took advantage of this Government Drainage 

 Money, some less some more, according to the requirements of 

 their land. Soiue of the tenants drained their land where it 

 was not naturally wet, for the purpose of breaking the pan. 

 What we call pan is a stratum on the top of the subsoil, below 

 the plougli furrow, through which the rain water cannot get, 

 but after the land is drained, the pan naturally decays, or loses 

 its original hardness, and then the rain water passes through, 

 and the plough gets freely into the subsoil. The government 

 drainage on the estate has been one of the greatest advantages 

 the tenants ever received. It makes all kinds of manure pro- 

 fitable to the crops, it brings the crops earlier to maturity, it 

 makes the land to be always in proper working order, and a 

 crop is expected whether the season be wet or dry. The fields 

 are now inclosed principally with stone dykes, and the land is 

 all farmed on the six course shift — that is, three years in grass in 

 succession, then oats after lea, then turnips, then oats with grass. 

 At the present day there is much demand through Scotland for 

 farm servants' cottages, but there is nothing of that required on 

 this estate; the late factor gave every industrious working man 

 that applied to him a stance for a house, with from 2 to 10 acres 

 of barren laud to improve for a croft to keep a cow for his family, 

 without any rent for a number of years. There are now about 



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