ON THE AGFJCULTUKE OK THE COUNTY OF SUTIIEKLAND. 71 



from 5 to 5^ lbs. of smeared wool. The Rhifail sheep are 

 generally smeared with the best quality of tar and butter. Mr 

 Purves winters the most of his sheep in Caitlmess, the average 

 cost for hoggs being from 9s. to 10s. each, and for old sheep, 5d. 

 to 6d. per week. The sheep kept on the Sutherland farm all 

 winter are mostly hand-fed with hay and oats when that is 

 necessary to sustain life, as it occasionally is. Mr Turves em- 

 ploys ten shepherds, and each has a " hirsel " of from 500 to 

 1000 head. The death-rate on this farm is from 7 to 10 per 

 cent, in an ordinary year, and, with exceptional winters such as 

 last, as high as from 15 to 25 per cent. Of every 100 ewe lambs 

 weaned, from 12 to 14 die before the lot has to be sold as cast 

 ewes. Of every 100 wether lambs weaned, probal)ly about 85 

 remain to be sold as three-year old wethers. In an ordinary year 

 every 100 ewes tupped nurse from 80 to 90 lambs. The death- 

 rate among both old and young sheep has increased latterly. 

 Mr I'urves has reclaimed close on 150 acres of arable land at 

 Rhifail. Oats and turnips grow well, but grass is unsatisfactory 

 until the land has been limed. Oats weigh about 42 lbs. per 

 bushel, and even this year they ripened well, and will yield over 

 5 quarters per acre. For the first crop of oats the land got a 

 dressing of o^ cvvt. of guano, dissolved bones, and superphos- 

 phate. For turnips, the manure has consisted of a mixture of 

 guano, dissolved bones, and bone meal, at the rate of 8 cwt. per 

 acre. The average cost of the reclamation of the land, which 

 has been accomplished in a most thorough manner, has been £40 

 per acre — trenching, £18 ; draining, £10 ; blasting stones with 

 dynamite and clearing them oft" the land, £7 to £10 ; and building 

 dykes 5.i- feet high, £5 per acre. This outlay is borne hj the 

 Duke of "Sutherland, Mr Purves paying 2^ per cent, of interest 

 for ten years, and 5 per cent, during the remainder of the lease. 

 In addition to the £40, the preparing of the land per acre has 

 cost Mr Purves an average of £12 per acre. The quantity of 

 stones in the land was great. After drains and dykes had been 

 supplied, the removing of the remainder cost no less than £7 per 

 acre. Mr Purves has also, at his own expense, reclaimed and laid 

 down in grass about 20 acres. Since Mr Purves entered Rhifail, 

 the Duke has built upon it a handsome dwelling-house at a cost 

 of £1800, four houses for shepherds, ploughmen, and women 

 servants, at a cost of about £250 each, and a good farm steading 

 at about £1200. Mr Purves contributed between £200 and £300 

 to the cost of the dwelling-house, besides carting the materials 

 for all the erections, and the slates, lime, and wood having to be 

 carted over a very bad road. Mr Purves has also formed and 

 fencetl with dykes, 5^ feet high, five sheep parks at difterent 

 parts of the farm, averaging in extent about 20 acres each. In 

 addition, he made an excellent garden, and planted shrubberies 



