70 ON THE AGRICULTUEE OF 



greater part of the coast-side district between Stonehaven and 

 Aberdeen had at one time been covered with moss. There is a 

 good deal still in the uncultivated parts, though the inhabitants 

 have been carting it away for fuel perhaps for centuries. The 

 soil, too, in the arable parts is impregnated with it, and in this 

 respect the land here differs slightly from that in the Deeside 

 districts of the county, where there is less moss. There the soil 

 is chiefly light, friable, fertile, sandy loam, with subsoil of clay 

 and gravel, or gravel alone. Under liberal farming for a long- 

 period, it has become considerably richer than it was originally, 

 and in a year when moisture is plentiful it yields excellent 

 crops of barley, oats, turnipb, md potatoes. In the parish of 

 Durris, back from the river side, there is a good deal of stiff 

 loam lying on a damp clayey subsoil. Exceptionally close 

 drainage has been required here to make the land useful, and 

 although it has, on the whole, been well handled in this respect, 

 it is still of a somewhat damp cold nature. The arable land in 

 Strachan lies along the courses of the Feugh and its tributary 

 the Dye ; and in these parts the soil is mostly of a medium 

 loam, friable and fertile in a favourable season, and lying on 

 clayey gravel or on the primary rocks. Away far up on the Feugh 

 side there are some wonderfully rich pieces of land, admirably 

 suited for the raising of barley, oats, and turnips. 



The Progress of the ^ast Twenty-five Years. 



Before tracing the progress of the past twenty-five years (the 

 period over which this report is required to extend), it would 

 have been interesting to have given an account of the ancient 

 systems of farming, and of the social condition of the two 

 counties a century ago. Such an account, however, would take 

 up more space than could well be devoted to a subject not pro- 

 perly within the range of the report. A few sentences must 

 therefore suffice. As might be expected, from its better climate 

 and more southern situation, the lower part of Forfarshire w^as 

 earlier brought under a system of improved husbandry than 

 Kincardineshire, and thus the contrast between the farming in 

 Forfarshire now and eighty years ago is less striking than 

 between the agriculture of Kincardineshire at the present day 

 and at the commencement of the century. From the Eev. Mr 

 Eodger's Report on Forfarshire, drawn up in 1794, it appears 

 that wheat was then cultivated in every parish in the lower 

 parts of the county ; that Angus oats, still famous, had then a 

 wide reputation ; that sown grasses were used on almost every 

 farm ; that turnips were freely grown ; and that potatoes were 

 cultivated with great success, the yield in some instances being 

 as high as from 50 to 60 bolls of 16 stones per acre. The 



