94 ON THE AGEICULTURE OF THE 



they at least Lad tlie satisfaction of leaving their beautiful 

 country better than they found it. Those who conimenced 

 farmiDg, or obtained the possession of land about 1850, found 

 the counties in a very difierent state from that in which they 

 were discovered by Mr George Mackenzie and Mr George Mid- 

 dleton when they settled at Tarbat and Cromarty respectively, 

 exactly fifty years prior to that. But even at 1850 all that was 

 desired had not been effected. There was still a corner of the 

 web to weave, and how thoroughly that work has been accom- 

 plished we hope, further on, to be able to show. 



Details of the reclamations and other improvements of recent 

 years will be given afterwards ; and here a general resume only 

 shall be offered. The agricultural returns when first taken up 

 in 1854 were rather incomplete, and in Eoss and Cromarty, as in 

 several other Highland counties, all holdings rented under L.20 

 were excluded from the returns. Correct comparison with twenty- 

 five or thirty years ago is therefore not very easily obtained. It 

 has been calculated that about twenty years ago there were close 

 on 6000 tenants in Eoss and Cromarty paying under L.20 of rent, 

 and that their arable areas averaii^ed about 3 acres, which would 

 <j:ive an area of 18,000 acres of arable land not included in the Am- 

 cultural Eeturns, This may be accepted as pretty nearly correct, 

 and accordingly the arable area in Eoss and Cromarty in 1854, 

 on holdings paying L.20 and upwards of annual rent, was 69,919 

 acres, and on small holdings 18,000 — total, 87,919 acres. Com- 

 pared with the present day the figures stand thus — 



Arable area in 1854, . . 87,919 



„ '„ 1876, . . 124,826 



Increase in 22 years, . 36,807 



Taking it for granted that the three years immediately preceding 

 1854 were as industrious in the march of improvement as an 

 average of those years that have since elapsed, we may safely put 

 down the number of acres reclaimed since 1850 at 41,830. This 

 w^e believe to be a much greater breadth of land than that brought 

 under cultivation in any other county in Scotland in a quarter 

 of a century ; and in addition to the reclamation of these many 

 thousands of acres, and all the other improvements necessary for 

 the proper cultivation of the new land, a very great deal has been 

 done since 1850 in the draining, squaring up, and fencing of old 

 land. In fact, it may safely be said that during the past twenty- 

 five years every acre of arable land that did not happen to be 

 naturally dry enough for cultivation has been thoroughly re- 

 drained, some of it even twice over. Tor some years back great 

 attention has been paid to fencing, and almost every arable farm 

 is now tolerably well provided with fences. Wire fences pre- 

 dominate, but stone dykes and hedging also exist extensively. 



