THE COUNTIES OF FORFAR AND KINCARDINE. 105 



clamation carried out in recent years is that so successfully 

 accomplished on the estates of Lundie and Parkland, by the 

 proprietor, Mr George Shepherd. Situated partly in Menmuir 

 and partly in Stracathro, this property was purchased in 1860 

 from the Earl of Kintore by Mr Shepherd for the sum of £11,000. 

 The total extent is 1145 acres. At the time of the purchase 342 

 acres were under cultivation or partially reclaimed. Since then 

 Mr Shepherd has reclaimed about 400 acres. The work was 

 commenced in 1863 when the leases on the property expired, 

 and carried out gradually. Nearly the whole extent was re- 

 claimed by ploughing, in some parts with two horses, a furrow 

 being taken down hill only, but generally with four horses, 

 making a furrow both ways. In a few spots spade trenching 

 had to be resorted to. Before being ploughed the land had to 

 be cleared of whins and broom, and many surface boulders re- 

 moved ; while two or three men followed the plough, digging up 

 the larger stones and throwing them on the ploughed land. The 

 larger stones were carted to lines fixed for stone wall fences, in 

 which they have been turned to good account ; and the smaller 

 ones to convenient situations, to be utilised in the forming of 

 drains and roads. The ground was next harrowed until a surface 

 fit for receiving oats was obtained ; and as soon as it was in 

 season it was sown with oats at the rate of from 6 to 7 bushels 

 per acre, along with 5 or 6 cwt. of artificial manures. Three 

 crops of oats were generally taken in succession, the number of 

 crops being regulated by the rate at which the sod decomposed. 

 Turnips followed the oats, but before these were sown, the land 

 received from 2 to 3 tons of lime per acre. When it could be 

 obtained dung was given, and when it could not artificial manures 

 alone were used, the mixture usually consisting of bone and 

 mineral phosphates with a small proportion of ammoniacal 

 manures either in the form of guano or nitrate of soda. "With 

 this treatment good crops of turnips were always obtained. A 

 grain crop with grass seeds followed — barley where dung had 

 been applied, and oats where the artificial manures were used 

 alone. The new land was thorouglily drained, generally after 

 the second or third oat crop, the most satisfactory system being 

 3 feet drains, at 24 feet apart. Stones were used for a number 

 of years, but as the price of labour advanced, tile drains were 

 found to be less expensive and equally ellicient. These opera- 

 tions, together with fencing, road making, and the erection of 

 buildings, entailed an outlay of about £30 per acre. The cost 

 was made up thus : — ploughing, clearing the land of stones, 

 draining, ditching, fencing, liming, and dunging, £20; roads and 

 buikUngs, £10. There still remains about 100 acres suitable for 

 reclamation. The soil is mostly a friable loam with a subsoil of 

 good red clay, intersected by bars of "pan" which decompose 



