COUNTIES OF liOSS AND CKOMAKTY. 91 



from tlie fields the whole stock was brought home and allowed 

 to range on the stubbles. Xo grass seeds were ever sown ; the 

 whole farm was under wretched crops of oats and barley. Three 

 or four, and not unfrequently five crops of oats followed each 

 other in succession; and when barley was sown with manure 

 three or four crops of oats followed. Xo greater quantity of 

 potatoes was planted but what was barely sufficient to answer 

 the home demand. Durincr the winter the horses and cattle 

 were fed on straw, but sparingly. The straw was always very 

 short, and from the system of management just described it will 

 readily be believed that the quantity was not very great, and 

 hardly enough to keep six black cattle and ten horses alive dur- 

 ing seven months of the year." The cattle reared in those days 

 were West Highlanders of an inferior class, and the niggardly 

 way in which (over the whole north) they were usually fed dur- 

 ing winter was simply shameful. About a hundred years ago, in 

 fact, the provender available for cattle during winter was so very 

 limited in quantity and inferior in quality that it was regarded 

 as no mean achievement for fai^mers to be able to feed their 

 cattle during the snowy months, so that when spring came they 

 might have sufficient physical firmness left to enable them to 

 walk to the hill grazings without first undergoing special treat- 

 ment for the journey ! As mentioned by Mr Wallace, those ani- 

 mals that were so weak as to be unable to walk to the hills were 

 fed for a week or two on sheaves of oats. Feeding, as the term 

 is nov/ understood, was unknown then. We were told an anec- 

 dote the other day of an English lady having come to take up 

 her residence in Easter Eoss about the beginning of the present 

 century, and having got so awfully horrified at discovering that 

 the only kind of beef to be had in the county was that of old 

 cows, that she inmiediately repacked her " goods and chattels," 

 and betook herself to the more genial south, where she might 

 feast on the "roast beef of Old Endand." 



The ancient farm horses of Eoss and Cromarty were the broad 

 low-set " garrons," while the native sheep was of the Kerry breed, 

 little, and very slow in growth. About the year 1764, Sir 

 John Lockhart Eoss of Ealnaffown becjan to turn his atten- 

 tion to sheep-farming, took one of his sheep-farms on his estate 

 into liis own hands and stocked it with Blackfaced sheep, which 

 he ])urchased at Linton market. Strong opposition was shown 

 to Sir John in this scheme, but though he suflered heavy losses 

 at the outset he persevered, and by the lessons he taught and tlio 

 encouragement he lield out to others, that extensive system of 

 sheep farming which has made Eoss-shire so famous was fairly 

 inaugurated. Tlie rise and progress of the movement deserves 

 more than a mere passing notice, but that had better be done 

 while treating of slieep-farming as a special subject. 



