REPORT OF THE RECLAMATION OF WASTE LAND. 429 



becoming rivalship stretching and swelling themselves into 

 timber. They are all of noble and worthy extraction. . . . 

 If this description pleases you, come, my dear friend, come 

 and partake of the beauties from whence it is drawn."* 



REPORT on the RECLAMATION of WASTE LAND on the FARMS 

 of LOCHEND and SYSTER, in the COUNTY of CAITHNESS. 



By James Purves, Lochend, Thurso. 



[Premium — Tlie Gold Medal] 



The farm of Lochend, the property of the trustee of the late 

 W. J. J. A. Sinclair, Esq. of Freswick, was entered to on a 

 nineteen years' lease from Whitsunday 1851. It then contained 

 260 acres of arable land, 40 acres of waste ground contiguous to 

 the arable, and 600 acres of hill pasture. Under the lease, L.400 

 at 6| per cent, interest was advanced, to be expended by the tenant 

 in completing the drainage and enclosure of the arable land. 



In 1859 the drainage and enclosure of the old arable land was 

 thoroughly completed, and the 40 acres of waste ground was 

 reclaimed by drainage, enclosure, and liming, the arable land 

 being thereby increased to 300 acres in regular rotation. A new 

 agreement was then entered into, whereby, for the further im- 

 provement of the property, the lease was extended to nineteen 

 years from Whitsunday 1860, and L.400 at 6 per cent, was 

 advanced to the reporter, to be expended by him in the reclama- 

 tion of 82 acres of waste ground, added to the farm, lying near 

 the new steading, which had been removed from the old grange 

 to a more central situation for increasing the area of the arable 

 land. The reclamation of the 82 acres was completed in 1864. 

 In 1865 the rest of the property, viz., Syster townlands and 

 mill, fell out of lease, and it was then arranged that the whole 

 property should become one possession. The reporter agreed to 

 expend L.400 in the reclamation of 43 acres of waste ground 

 lying immediately above the 82 acres formerly reclaimed. The 

 43 acres were divided into two fields, and thoroughly drained 

 in winter 1865-6, and were enclosed and had a road of access 

 made to them in the summer of 1866. 



The estate of Lochend and Syster is situated in the parish 

 of Dunnet, at about an equal distance of four miles from the 

 Pentland Firth on the east, and the Atlantic Ocean on the 

 west of Dunnet Head, and about six miles from Dunnet Head 

 Lighthouse, the most northerly point in Scotland. The estate 

 contains 1814 imperial acres or thereby, whereof, including 

 the 125 acres to be reported upon, 425 acres are now arable, 



* Coxe's "Memoirs of Horatio Lord Walpole." 



2f 



