THE COUNTIES OF FORFAR AND KINCARDINE. 123^ 



trates that pursued in the district generally. Quithelhead extends 

 to 173 acres, all arable, and to this a croft of 5 acres is added. 

 The soil is mostly a yellowish loam, with clayey subsoil. Two- 

 thirds of the farm was drained at 18 feet, and the remainder 36 

 feet apart. The five-course rotation is generally pursued, but 

 many are now turning into the six-shift, wdiich both lessens the 

 labour and manure bills and diminishes the risk of damage to 

 turnips by " finger and toe." Mr Thom would also prefer the 

 six shifts, with three years grass, but his farm is laid off and 

 fenced with stone dykes in five shifts, so that in six shifts the 

 farm would be very inconvenient to work. Other farmers on 

 the estate, and also on other properties in the two counties, have 

 a similar difBculty to face in the altering of their system of 

 cropping. Barley succeeds turnips on most farms, and yields 

 from 4 to 5J qrs. per acre, weighing 53 to 55 lbs. per bushel ;. 

 oats yield from 4 to 7 qrs., weighing from 40 to 43 lbs. ; potatoes 

 from 5 to 6 tons ; turnips from 13 to 17 tons; and hay about 

 200 stones of 22 lbs. each. Turnips and potatoes get from 12 ta 

 18 loads of farmyard manure, with artificial manure, mostly 

 guano, dissolved bones, bone dust, and coprolites, to the value of 

 about 30s. or 40s. per acre. Sowing sometimes begins about the- 

 middle of March, and harvest occasionally as early as the second 

 week of August. The latter, how^ever, is often much later in 

 commencim^^ and is sometimes not finished till the middle of 

 October. Mr Thom keeps about forty-tw'o or forty-five cattle of 

 all ages. Formerly he fed off his cattle w^hen rising three years, 

 but now he finds it more profitable to feed them off a year 

 younger. Those he has sold when two years old have brought 

 from £23 to £24 a-head. A good deal of linseed and cotton 

 cake is used. A good many cattle are bred in the district, but 

 not nearly so many as are fed in it. A large number of Irish 

 stock are bought in lean, and sold fat, after he'ing kept for from 

 six to ten months. The home-bred stock are far superior to 

 these. Since he began to feed oft' his cattle when two year olds,. 

 Mr Thom has put his calves into the court their first winter, and 

 lias added to their allowance of straw and turnips a mixture of 

 cake and bruised oats and barley. The proprietor lately built 

 an addition to Mr Thorn's steading in the form of sheds and 

 feeding byre, the rent on this account being raised by £10. The 

 farm is divided into fifteen fields, vjirying in extent from 10 to 

 14 acres, and the croft into five fields, all well watered and 

 fenced by sul)stantial stone dykes. Entry is obtained to farms- 

 en this estate at Martinmas, tlie first half-year's rent bein;' 

 payable a year afterwards. Since about 1850 the rent of the- 

 arable land has increased by about thirty per cent. 



On the opposite side of the Dee from Durris lie the parishes^ 

 of Drumoak and lianchory-Ternan. Of the former, only 2121 



