10 ON THE AGEICULTUEE OF 



was expected, and the landlord soon tried other experiments to 

 improve the condition of his tenantry. Nineteen years leasfis 

 were granted, and all rents were converted into money pay- 

 ments. In the low state of farming pursued at that time many 

 more cattle were kept than the holdings would maintain, and the 

 horses were of such inferior quality that six of them were em- 

 ployed to draw the wooden plough then used. Black cattle were 

 general throughout the island, and were an ill-conditioned bad- 

 milking breed. It was one of the conditions of these new leases that 

 the stocks should be reduced, and for this purpose a public fair was 

 appointed to be held at Eothesay for the sale of the surplus 

 stock, of which fair the following extract from the " Glasgow 

 Journal," of 16th April 1765, is an advertisement :■ — 



" At Eothesay, in Bute, upon 28th May next, there will 

 be held a market of black cattle, sheep, and horses ; the market 

 to continue till all are sold off. As most of the tenants in the 

 island are obliged by their tacks to dispose of a third of their 

 stock against Whitsunday next, it is expected there will be a great 

 number of cattle there. 



" For the convenience of merchants, boats will attend at 

 Eothesay, and likewise at Scoulag Burn-foot, for carrying off the 

 cattle sold, either to Largs, or anywhere up the river, freight 

 free." 



"While the Earl was thus trying to improve the condition of 

 the stocks by causing fewer animals to be kept, he also offered 

 " a variety of premiums, such as, for the best bulls, for the best 

 dairy produce, for the greatest quantity of butter and cheese 

 produced by a given number of cows, for well-compounded com- 

 post dung-hills, and a certain sum per acre for waste land 

 brought under cultivation." A Suffolk stalhon was kept for the 

 use of the farmers' mares, and no fees were charged for his 

 service, and many other important improvements were promoted 

 by this patriotic nobleman. 



In 1805 or thereby his successor, following in his footsteps, and 

 actuated by the same laudable motives, sent, at his own expense, 

 half-a-dozen farmers' sons, bred on the island, to be educated by 

 a Mr Walker, on the farm of Eutherford, near Kelso, and 

 instructed in the most approved systems of agricultare then 

 pursued in Eoxburghshire. On their way east these young men 

 passed through the country from Glasgow to Edinburgh and 

 from Edinburgh to Kelso on foot, and were thus enabled to 

 obtain a good general view of the whole agriculture of the counties 

 along their route. The curriculum through which these students 

 passed lasted for two years, at the end of which time they returned 

 to Bute, and were furnished with farms on the estate of the- 

 marquis at reasonaV)le rents. Their improved mode of farming. 



