THE COUNTIES OF FORFAR AND KINCARDINE. 99 



bones per acre. The sowing of grain is commenced about the 

 middle of March, and turnip sowing about the middle of May. 

 Harvest generally begins about the last week of August. Only 

 a few cattle are bred, a large number being bought in and fed 

 every year. The farms in this district have been much improved 

 since 1850 by draining, fencing, and building, mostly done by 

 money advanced by the proprietors on interest at the rate of 

 per cent. On the Tannadice estate, Mr Xeish has expended a 

 very large sum on buildings and other improvements within the 

 last seven or eight years. He has spent as much as £2000 on 

 the farm of Easter Balgillo, w^hich is leased by Mt William 

 Davidson at a rent of £525, and almost as much on some others. 

 The fields on Mr Davidson's farm are all fenced with stone dykes 

 and wire, and also well watered. The rent of land in this district 

 averages about 35s., some farms being as high as £2 per acre. 



Almost the whole of the parish of Careston, extending to 

 2113 acres, belongs to Mr John Adamson, Blairgowrie. The 

 rental of the parish amounts to £2697, and all excepting the 

 valued rental of the parish manse and glebe, and the public school- 

 house, goes to Mr Adamson. The increase since 1856-57 is 

 about £180. About IQO acres had been planted on the Careston 

 estate some twenty-five or thirty years ago, but with that exception 

 few improvements had been effected when Mr Adamson entered 

 into possession about 1872. On the home farm an excellent farm 

 steading had previously been erected at a cost of over £800 by 

 Mr Stevenson, now of Blairshinnoch, Banffshire, and during the 

 past six or seven years the present proprietor has done a great 

 deal in the way of building, draining, and fencing. Additions, 

 consisting mostly of covered courts, extra byre accommodation, 

 and in some cases of a re-arrangement of the whole buildings, 

 have been made to the steadings on the Home Farm, Hillhead, 

 Peathill, Cowford, Knowehead, Balfour, and Blackhill. The 

 cost of these additions ranged from £100 to £400. A great 

 portion of the estate has been drained at a cost of from £6 to 

 £7, 10s. per acre. Many of the old drained fields were re-drained 

 by forming drains with two-inch pipes across the old drains, at 

 a distance of from 15 to 25 or 30 yards apart. This plan has 

 been found not only clieap but also quite as effectual as if a new 

 drain had been cut between every two of the old drains ; the 

 new drains were not cut right across the old ones, but at an 

 angle, while they were cut a few inches deeper than the old 

 drains. As a rule, these improvements, carried out by the 

 proprietor, have been charged to the tenants in the form of a 

 certain percentage of interest. In some cases, however, they 

 have been done free of interest. Tlie tenants themselves liave 

 also improved their holdings a good deal. Dr Chithrie, who rents 

 the farms of Nether Careston and Gateside at £879, lis. lOd., 



