ON THE AGlMcrLTUKE OF THE COUNTY OF SUTHERLAND. 47 



Tlic licclamations Viewed Financially. 



The total cxpoiiditurc up to tlio present time (Octo])or 1870), in 

 connection witii these reclanuition.s, amounted to al)(jut £1.':!0,000, 

 exclusive of the working plant. Of tliis about £110,000 must 

 be noted against the Lairg improvements, which in reality may 

 he said to have Ijeen nothing else than one large ex])(!rinu'nt. 

 Having failed to obtain contractors to carry out the work there 

 in accordcance with the recommendations of Mr Kenneth Mvu-ray, 

 the Duke determined to accomplish it by steam power. In his 

 hrst attempt to do this, he found the steam cultivating tackle, 

 as it then existed, wholly unsuited for such heavy work. It was 

 much too weak, and in other respects unsatisfactory. Steam 

 power, indeed, had never been before applied to such a purpose, 

 and he thus discovered, as it were, that he had undertaken an 

 operation for which no capable instrument had yet been devised. 

 Science had already provided him with suitable motive power in 

 the shape of substantially designed locomotive steam engines, 

 but abnost everything else in the form of implements he had to 

 construct for himself. The devising and perfecting of imple- 

 ments to perform most diilicult operations so satisfactorily as 

 the Sutherland reclamation implements now do, must have en- 

 tailed enormous expense. Many weary days and weeks were 

 spent amidst what seemed at times almost hopeless confusion, 

 for, as each fresh difiiculty presented itself, some new appliance 

 had to be devised to overcome it. In these circumstances it is 

 only reasonable that a large proportion of the outlay of Lairg 

 should be charged against " experiments," and not on the actual 

 reclanuition of the land. In proof of the fairness of this sugges- 

 tion, it may be stated that, while at Lairg, before the implements 

 were made so thoroughly perfect as they now are, the ploughing 

 cost in some cases as much as £25 per acre, it has latterly been 

 accomplished in Kildonan at about £3 per acre, the soil in the 

 latter case being turned over to a depth of about 30 inches. 



Other Worhs on the Sutherland Property. 



Besides these vast reclamations, the Duke of Sutherland has 

 carried out, or has at present in progress, many smaller but im- 

 portant improvements on his extensive northern property. He 

 has expended many thousands of pounds in improving and 

 building houses for smaller tenants or crofters ; and has advanced 

 at a moderate rate of interest a still greater sum to the larger 

 farmers for improvements on their farms. Several of the tenants 

 of arable farms have extended their holdings with money 

 advanced by the Duke in this way ; while, under like conditions, 

 a number of the larger sheep farmers have reclaimed 100 or 



