ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF SUTHERLAND. 83 



pasture on tlic ffcazing farms, especially on the green land, lias 

 seriously deteriorated, compelling tenants to send a greater pro- 

 portion of the stock off the farms for wintering, and causing a much 

 higher death-rate among sheep of all ages ; that the restrictions 

 put upon ] leather-burning by lessees of shootings also lessen the 

 value of liill grazings ; that the cost per head of wintering lias 

 been doubled during the past twenty-five years ; that tliere has 

 also been a great increase in the ordinary working expenses of 

 the farms, — such as shepherds' wages, and expenses of clipping, 

 smearing, and dipping ; again, that the prices of both wool and 

 mutton have fallen latterly ; and lastly, that rents are too high, 

 — or, perhaps, rather that, with the deteriorated pastures, the 

 farms will not now carry tlie number of slieep allotted to them 

 by Mr Andrew Hall in 1846 ; and that, therefore, rent is charged 

 for more sheep than the farms can really maintain. 



The first of these positions — the deterioration of the green 

 land — is perhaps the most important ; indeed, it lies at the root 

 of the whole matter. The writer has, therefore, made special 

 ettbrt to obtain in regard to it the experience of the great body 

 of the sheep-farmers in the county, more particularly those who 

 have had the most lengthened tenancy. In response there has 

 lieen but one voice — that there has been marked deterioration. 

 A few samples of the singular uniformity of the testimony on 

 this point may be given. One says : — " The old lands cultivated 

 by the tenants, which constitute most of our green land, are getting 

 useless with fog and waste, and no wonder, if you consider that 

 for fifty years all has been taken out of it and nothing tohatever 

 put in (sheep lying on the high ground at night). Our land now 

 won't keep one-third less sheep so well as twenty-five years ago. 

 Besides, the sportsmen and gamekeepers prevent us getting the 

 hill-ground burned as it ouglit to be. The e\dl is rapidly in- 

 creasing." Another : — " Our green pastures have deteriorated 

 very much. The green land formerly cropped by the small 

 tenants has gone back. Most of it carries stock from the age of 

 a lamb till three and a half or five and a half years old, and, as 

 a matter of course, the bone comes out of the ground, and nothing 

 is done to replace it. On an estate where each farm is rented at 

 so much })er head for a fixed number of sheep, I tliink the land- 

 lord ought to put the land into a state to curry the number for 

 which he gets paid, at the beginning of every lease, or reduce the 

 number charged to that whicli the ground \d\\ carr5^" Another: 

 — " The pasture on the green land has deteriorated greatly. To 

 a great extent it was originally reclaimed from heather, and has 

 gone back to its wild state. What was reclaimed even twenty 

 years ago is growing wortliless daily, and will require, not only 

 liming, but, I fear, to be broken up and laid down anew." 

 Another: — "0\ving to the climate seemingly becoming more 



