84 ox THE AGEICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF SUTHERLAND. 



severe, the mossing or cottou plant fast disappearing, the diffi- 

 culties we have to contend wtli in heather burning, owing to 

 the sporting tenants, the towns or green patches gettmg fogged 

 and overgrown with heather, it is impossible to keep as good a 

 class of Cheviot sheep as was, comparatively, kept a few years 

 back." Another : — " Green lauds have deteriorated undoubtedly. 

 They have become fogged, and gone back to a state of ' nature.' " 

 Another :— " The pasture on sheep farms has undoubtedly de- 

 teriorated a great deal, owing to the stringent conditions imposed 

 regarding heather burning, and the green spots throwing up fog 

 wliich chokes the grass." Another : — " Pasture in Sutherland on 

 green land has deteriorated during the past twenty-five years, 

 principally through the grass being choked "svith fog or moss." 

 Another : — " The farms do not nearly carry the number of stock 

 they did twenty years ago, nor are the sheep stock the same 

 quahty. Tliis is easily accounted for by the state of the grass, 

 and, more especially, the strict restrictions in burning the heather 

 laid dovni of late years to suit sportsmen." Another : — " The 

 grazings are not nearly so rich as they were twenty years ago. 

 They cannot mamtain the same niuuber of stock as formerly, 

 and, therefore, a large portion of the young stock has to be 

 wintered away in the neighbouring comities of Caithness and 

 Eoss at a very high expense." Lastly may be given the follow- 

 ing striking proof of the alleged deterioration as told to the 

 writer by a prominent farmer in the county: — "Twenty-two 

 years ago a friend of mine put a little over 1100 hoggs on to a 

 piece of grazing land in Strath Brora for the winter. At the 

 usual time in spring 1030 were returned to the hill in good con- 

 dition, between 30 and 40 of the weaker ones being retained a 

 httle longer. Eleven years afterwards the same gentleman put 

 400 hogs on the same piece of land for wintering, and before the 

 winter was half over he had to take them to an arable farm and 

 give them turnips. In each of these two years the land had 

 been specially preserved as hogging land." 



These testimonies should sufficiently establish the truth of the 

 position that the green pastures have deteriorated during the 

 past quarter of a century. But could they have done otherwise? 

 Is not the tliuig self-evident ? Originally there was little green 

 land in Sutherland. The natural condition of the greater por- 

 tion of what has fonned the green land of the grazing farms was 

 not producing green grasses, but heather, moss, ling, bent, and 

 other coarse plants common to such situations. It was reclaimed 

 and enriched for the production of the green and finer grasses 

 by the many hundreds of small tenants who long occupied the 

 straths in the interior of the county. About sixty years have 

 elapsed since these tenants gave up their holdings to the fleecy 

 tribe. During all that period the land thus left in good con- 



