ox THE AGRICULTURE OF FORFAR AND KIXCARDINE. 53 



ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTIES OF 

 FORFAR AND KINCARDINE. 



By James Macdonald, Editor of " The Irish Farmers' Gazette." 

 [Preriiium — Thirty Sovereigns. ] 



Introductory. 



The counties of Forfar and Kincardine are Ijound in by tlie 

 counties of Perth and Aberdeen and by the Eirth of Tay and 

 German Ocean. The former, by far the larger of the two, is 

 separated from Fifeshire on the south by the Firth of Tay ; 

 washed on the south-east by the German Ocean ; bounded on 

 the north-east by the North Esk ; and on the north and north- 

 west by the parishes of Aboyne, Birse, Glenmuick, and Crathie 

 in Aberdeenshire, and by the Grampian AVatershed ; while 

 Perthshire lies on the west. The most southern point, near 

 Dundee, is in 56° 27', and the most northern, near Mount Keen, 

 in 56° 59' N. lat. ; the most easterly point, near Montrose, being 

 in 2° 27', and the most westerly, at Blacklunans, in 3^ 24' W. 

 long. The distance from north to south is about 38 miles, and 

 from east to west 27 miles. The coast-line is about 45 miles 

 lon;^. Forfarshire stands eleventh amon^^ Scottish counties as 

 to extent. There are different estimates of the exact acreage. 

 In the Ordnance Survey it is stated at 569,850. Of these, 6486 

 are taken up by foreshores and 3178 by water. The return of 

 owners of lands and heritages, compiled in 1872-73, gives the 

 "acreage of property" at 553,850 acres. 



Kincardineshire is bounded on the south and west by the 

 North Esk and Forfarshire, and on the north bv the Dee and 



' ml 



Aberdeenshire, and washed on the east for about 35 miles bv 

 the German Ocean. It is triangular in form, extending 32 miles 

 from south-west to north-east, and 24 miles where broadest 

 from south to north. Ranking twenty-first among Scotch 

 counties, its area is stated in the Ordnance Survey to be 248,195 

 acres. Tlie foreshores extend to 1385 and tlie surface covered 

 by water to 1463 acres. In the return of owners of lands and 

 heritages, the area is stated at 244,585 acres. 



According to tlie return of owners of lands and heritages 

 there are in Forfarshire in all 4898 owners of land, whose, pro- 

 perty is stated at 553,852 acres, and estimated at £795,581, 7s. 

 of gross annual value. Of these, 071 possess one acre and 

 upwards each, and their total acreage is given at 552,708 

 acres, or an average of about 569 acres each. The 3927 owners 

 of land under one acre in extent have only 1144 acres amongst 

 them, being less than one-third of an acre each. In Kincardine, 



