REPORT ON THE RECLAMATION OF "WASTE LAND. 314 



gress, merely to show that the reclamation of the 125 acres of 

 waste ground between the two portions of the estate of Lochend 

 and Syster, which is now specially to be reported of, was a 

 necessary part of the improvement of the estate for connecting 

 the arable land by bringing into cultivation waste ground inter- 

 vening, and in proximity to the steading, without which it could 

 not have been complete as a whole or done systematically. The 

 extended improvement when executed may form the subject of a 

 future report. 



The surface area of the county may be classified as — 1st, How- 

 moss ; 2d, Heath ground with more than 18 inches of decayed 

 vegetable mould or humus over the clay or rock ; 3d, Heath 

 ground, with from 2 inches to 18 inches of humus ; and 4th, 

 Green ground, formed by alluvial deposit from disintegration of 

 the rocks and rain-washings of the soils at a higher level. The 

 cultivated land, extending to about one-fifth of the area of the 

 county, has been principally taken from the third class. 



The shore sides have been long in cultivation, but the interior 

 has not been so. The granges of the mains' farms, which up to 

 about 1830 were generally in the occupation of the proprietors, 

 can be easily distinguished passing through the county, as they 

 are situated on the dry eminences of its undulating surface, the 

 land attached to them having the advantage of the natural fall 

 for carrying off the superfluous rain water. The soils on these 

 farms have been accumulated to considerable depths by the 

 former practice of carrying midden feals from the out-fields and 

 commonties ; and with all deference to modern improvement, the 

 truth of the Caithness saying, that " the auld rigg is the best ane," 

 must be admitted, although in many cases it has been made so at 

 the expense of its poorer neighbours. Keclamation has been ex- 

 tended principally by working from the old mains land as a base 

 of operations. The introduction of thorough drainage has enabled 

 a large proportion of the fourth class of low-lying, and swampy 

 ground to be put into cultivation, which is next in value to the 

 old arable, and in some cases equal to the best of it. A good 

 deal of inferior ground, having less than 6 inches of mould above 

 the subsoil, has been reclaimed in extending the area of cultiva- 

 tion by straightening lines and squaring fields. Strangers are 

 often disgusted with the poor, hungry, and unequal appearance 

 of much of the land after it is turned over in spring and before 

 it is covered with vegetation. A Morayshire man, who held a 

 farm for less than seven years in the county, pertinently remarked, 

 " Yer aacres, aacres ! I've seen mair Ian' on yae aacre in Murrayshire 

 than on twenty o' yer Caithnuss aacres." But there is an extra- 

 ordinary virtue in the Caithness clay, which in early autumn is 

 equally deceptive, as there is generally then a more luxuriant 

 vegetation on the ground than there is climate to mature. 



