88 ON THE AGRICULTUKE OF THE COUNTY OF SUTHERLAND. 



well, and in others tliey return with light purses, perhaps occa- 

 sionally a little in debt. In the townships near the sea, with 

 convenient creeks or landing-place for boats, the men are 

 engaged less or more in the white and lobster fishing. 



Labour and Markets. 



Lahour. — Ploughmen receive higher wages than in either 

 Caithness or Ross ; and during the past twenty-five years they 

 have advanced nearly 80 per cent. They are engaged for 

 twelve months, and receive in money and perquisites from £40 

 to £45 per annum. Most farms are provided with good cottages 

 for married men. Single men, forming perhaps the majority, 

 live either in kitchens or bothies, or with married servants. 

 There are few bothies, but where they do exist, a respectable 

 female servant is engaged to cook and keep house for the men. 

 Women servants get from £8 to £10 a-year with board and 

 lodoiniT. The increase in their case is even greater than in 

 that of ploughmen's wages. The Duke of Sutherland's land 

 reclamations raised the wages of day labourers to from 3s. to 

 3s. 6d., in some cases to even 4s. a-day ; but they have now 

 fallen to from 2s. 6d. to 2s. 8d. per day. 



Shepherds are generally married, and live in cottages near 

 or on their " hirsels." On most farms there are a few single 

 lads or men who board with the married shepherds. Suther- 

 land shepherds are, generally speaking, paid higher wages than 

 those in any of the other northern counties. On some farms, 

 married men receive from £18 to £24 a-year with an enclosed 

 croft of about 2 arable acres, keep for 18 to 24 sheep and 

 2 cows, and 6^ bolls of oatmeal; and single lads from £20 

 to £22 with board with married men, and keep for 12 sheep. 

 On other farms married men get about £28 with small croft, — 

 keep for 2 cows and a pony, and 6^ bolls of oatmeal. On 

 an average, the money value of all they receive may be esti- 

 mated at about £55 per annum. The shepherds' wages in the 

 county have advanced from 15 to 30 per cent, during the past 

 quarter of a century. 



Markets. — Sutherland sheep are generally sold, by reputation, 

 at the Inverness Wool Fair, held in the second week of July. 

 Generally, farmers express satisfaction with their experience 

 of that great fair, but some think that now, when the railway 

 system is so complete, monthly or other periodical markets at 

 the Muir of Ord or elsewhere, might advantageously take the 

 place of the wool fair. The system pursued at the wool fair is 

 certainly very peculiar and scarcely business-like. It has been 

 well described by the late Mr Patrick Sellar : — " At this great 

 market farmers assemble from all parts of the Highlands. They 

 are met by wool-staplers and sheep-buyers from the south of 



