COUNTIES OF EOSS AND CROMAETY. 85 



the parish, but here and there strong clay takes its place. The 

 soil on the bank land in some parts varies from 3 to 4 feet of the 

 finest of alluvial loam lying on the red sandstone, and unless in 

 exceptionally bad years, it never fails to yield excellent crops. 

 The soil in the adjoining parish of Fearn is also of very fine 

 quality and much of the same texture as in the better parts of 

 Nigg. On the estate of Allan, and about the farm of Cullis, the 

 soil is mainly strong adhesive clay, with a slight admixture on 

 the rising parts of vegetable loam. In the parish of Tarbat the 

 prevailing soil is light fertile loam, lying chiefly on the Old Eed 

 Sandstone, but some of it also on gravel and boulder clay. A 

 good deal of inferior land lies in the parish of Tain, the soil being 

 light and scarce, and resting on a firm impenetrable irony pan. 

 What of the soil is good consists chiefly of mixed loam lying on 

 clay. Throughout this parish, and in fact here and there over the 

 whole of the arable land in both counties, numerous large water- 

 worn granitic boulders are found embedded in the soil. These 

 boulders belong to the primitive formations, and, like the many 

 huge pieces of granite of similar shape that are occasionally found 

 in the Lothians of Scotland, must have been carried thither from 

 the hills by icebergs during the glacial period. Along the coast 

 from Tain to Edderton the soil is very light, and lies mostly on 

 a sandy bottom. About Invercarron and Bonar Bridge there are 

 a few" fields of very fine alluvial land, yielding rich returns of all 

 kinds of crops. On the small pieces of arable land that do exist 

 on the west coast, the soil is not heavy but wonderfully fertile. 

 As already stated, the whole of the island of Lewis was originally 

 covered with moss, and the greater portion of the flatter parts is 

 still in the same condition, except on the sea coast and borders 

 of sea lochs, where the crofts and farms are situated. In the 

 course of centuries the moss close to the inhabited parts of Lewis 

 has been cut away for fuel, and now there are considerable tracts 

 on both sides of the island cleared of it. It is on the gravelly, 

 strong subsoil thus laid bare that agriculture is chiefly carried on, 

 the exceptions being where pieces of moss or sand near the sea- 

 shore are wrought for crops. 



The Farming and Social Customs of Olden Times, 



All things are judged by comparison, and therefore before pro- 

 ceeding to detail the farming of Ross and Cromarty, as now 

 carried on, it might not be out of placi; to devote a few pages to 

 the systems of agriculture that ])revailed from fifty to a hundred 

 years ago. The ancient agriculture of iloss and Cromarty is 

 fully descri])ed in Sir .John Sinclair's "Statistical Account of 

 Scotland," and in " A Survey of Ross-shire," drawn up for the 

 Board of Agriculture by Sir George Stewart Mackenzie, Bart., 



