COUNTIES OF EOSS AND CROMARTY. 123 



and a home farm. It extends in three parallel glens, from Glen 

 Orrin to the Dingwall and Skye Eailway, only the south side of 

 Strathbran belonging to Mr Balfour. The river Meig, a tribu- 

 tary of the Conon, runs through the centre glen of Strathconon. 

 It is only 16 miles from the Muir of Ord, and 20 miles from 

 Dingwall and Beauly, but still the estate is very much isolated; 

 nevertheless, it has been greatly improved within the past thirty 

 years. The glens are so very narrow, and the rivers so tortuous 

 in their courses, that there is really little room for reclamations 

 of any extent. On the home farm there are about 60 acres under 

 rotation, and here and there along the river sides there are small 

 patches of arable ]and. In fact, almost the whole of the limited 

 extent suited for growing crops has been reclaimed by trenching 

 and draining. It is not a profitable speculation, however, to 

 trench such small spots as these. The soil on the arable land, 

 and all low ground, is gravelly, light, but moderately fertile. 

 Since 1870, three new farm-houses and steadings, and nine cot- 

 tages for shepherds aud labourers, have been erected ; while, 

 since 1850, several old buildings have been enlarged and reno- 

 vated. About 35 miles of stroma wire fences and three miles of 

 stone dykes have been erected during the last six or seven years, 

 while a good deal of the arable land has been redrained, and the 

 permanent pastures on the river sides well limed. The ordinary 

 five-course shift is followed, and very fair crops of all kinds are 

 grown. The cows generally are strong substantial crosses, while 

 Mr Balfour keeps a good pure shorthorn bull. The extent of arable 

 land is so limited that there is often scarcely sufficient wintering 

 for the cows, and consequently the calves are sold off early in 

 autumn. The calves of last season were sold at the jMuir of 

 Ord in September, and were as fine a lot of cross calves as we 

 have ever seen brought into a market in the north of Scotland. 

 There are about a dozen crofters on the estate, and these eke out 

 the produce of their small holdings by employment received 

 from Mr Balfour, and by cartage. There are in all about a dozen 

 sheep-farms, ranging in size from 1000 to 7000 acres. On several 

 of these there are small patches of arable land ; but unless the 

 tenant happens to reside on the farm, these plots are not culti- 

 vated. Three or four of the sheep farmers, who hold the gi-eeu 

 hills or richer pastoral lands, keep Cheviot ewes, while the others 

 have blackfaced ewe and wether stocks. A considerable extent 

 of the hill pasture was impnjvcd several years ago by sur- 

 face draining, but a good deal of it is almost as bad as ever. A 

 commencement was made at redraining those wet swampy parts 

 last summer, Init the rainfall was too heavy and continuous to 

 admit of much being donc^ There are about 500 acres of excel- 

 lent wood — Scotch lir and lurch, from 28 to 30 years old. About 

 400 acres were planted within the last two vears, and it has been 



