ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF SUTHERLAND. 13 



the amount of the rainfall at the Dunrobm Castle Gardens iu 

 each of the past ten years : — 



Averaf^e for ten years, 31-71 inclies. 



The following is a statement of the rainfall in the first nine 

 months of the present year (1879) : — 



January, . 



February, 



March, 



April, 



May, . 



June, 



July, 



August, . 



September, 



Totals, 



The following ind 

 four years m which -01 or more rain fell 



22-54 



138 



cates the number of days in each of the past 



1875 

 1876 

 1877 

 1878 



157 days 

 209 

 244 

 180 



>j 



Geology. — Soils. 



The relations between underlymg strata and surface soils 

 are generally so intimate that, as a rule, a report on the 

 agriculture of a county or district would be incomplete without 

 some sketch of the geological formation ; but, in this case, 

 there are circumstances which make it undesirable to occupy 

 space w*ith such an account. In the first place, the subject 

 has already been ably dealt with in the "Transactions of 

 the Highland and Agricultural Society " by Mr E. J. Hay Cun- 

 ningliam, M.W.S., whose admirable " Geognostical Account 

 of the County of Sutherland " appears in vol. vii., 2d series, p. 

 73. Again, the exceptionally small portion of the soil of the 

 county that is worked for agricidtural purposes makes a lengthy 

 sketch of its geology less desirable than it otherwise would be. 

 A few sentences will therefore suffice. Generally speaking, 

 it may be said that the underlying strata of the county belong to 



