86 ON THE AGFJCULTURE OF 



Along the coast here there are many other farms well worthy 

 of special notice, it would be but repetition, however, to detail 

 the system pursued on many more. 



Proceeding northwards along the coast towards the thriving 

 town of Arbroath, we pass a number of large well-managed 

 farms, on which the seven-shift rotation is for the most part 

 pursued. One of the best managed and most widely known 

 farms in the neighbourhood of Arbroath is Mains of Kelly, 

 tenanted by Mr Alexander Bowie, the eminent breeder of polled 

 cattle. Mr Bowie is a distim^uished fjeneral farmer as well as a 

 cattle breeder. He has conducted many experiments on the 

 growing of grain from thick and thin sowing, and under other 

 circumstances. He uses remarkably little seed (about 2 

 bushels per imperial acre), and grows beautiful crops- of all kinds 

 of grain. 



Continuing our northern route, we pass through the parishes 

 of St Vigeans, Inverkeillor, Lunan, Maryton, and Craig, and 

 halt at Montrose. These parishes extend respectively to 13,143, 

 10,516, 1981, and 3686 acres; and in each there has been a 

 substantial increase in the rental since 1856, though not so 

 much as in some other parishes in the county. The increase in 

 St Yigeans, Inverkeillor, and Craig is equal to about 6s. per 

 acre of the total extent, and in the other two about Is. less. A 

 leading farmer in Craig states that the soil in his district is 

 mostly black loam on trap, or " scurdy " rock. The cropping is 

 pursued in six and seven shifts. Wheat yields about 4J or 



5 qrs., weighing 62 lbs. per bushel ; barley 5J qrs., weighing 

 54 lbs. ; oats 6 to 6J qrs., weighing 42 lbs. ; potatoes about 



6 tons ; and turnips from 15 to 24 tons per acre. Potatoes 

 are usually manured with court-made dung, while turnips get 

 dung and from 3 to 5 cwt. of artificial manure per acre. 

 Spring sowing commences about the 18th of March, turnip 

 sowing about the 10th of May, and harvesting about the 1st 

 of September. There is very little difference in the system 

 of farming pursued now and twenty-fiv^e years ago. In the 

 system of cropping, the only difference is that no fallow wheat is 

 now grown. Twenty-five years ago most of the farmers in this 

 district bred their own cattle. Now they depend chiefly on Irish 

 stock, which they buy in young, from a year to eighteen months 

 old, at from £7 to £17 a head, and which they feed on turnips 

 and cake or meal. The majority go to the London and Glasgow 

 markets when two or three years old. The greater portion of 

 the land has been redrained since 1850, mainly by money 

 advanced on interest by the proprietors. Farm houses are, as 

 a rule, good, and the supply of water sufficient, but fencing is 

 scarce. Pent ranges on an average from 50s. to 60s. per acre. 

 On the large farms of Gilchorn aud Cauldcots, on the Anniston 



