COUNTIES OF EOSS AND CROMAPcTY. 161 



James has imported thoroughly good stallions at various times 

 to improve the native breed of horses, and at his manor farm, so 

 skilfully and carefully managed by Mr Gavin Fowlie, two or 

 more stallions are always kept for the benefit of the different 

 classes of tenantry in the island. Lewis horses, however, stand 

 in need of improvement in feeding, usage, and grooming as in 

 breeding. Small one-year old ponies sell at from L.5 to L.7, 

 older and larger from L.15 to L.30, and the better class of farm 

 horses from L.40 to over L.50. 



In 1875 pigs of all ages numbered 600. These are confined 

 chiefly to the north-west side of the island, whence they are 

 mostly shipped in store condition to Glasgow in winter and 

 spring. Very few pigs are kept by the crofters, and what they 

 do rear are of an inferior sort. 



Cotter Farming. 



As already hinted, the number of small holdings in the 

 counties of Eoss and Cromarty is very large ; in fact, the number 

 of holdings under 20 acres in extent is not far short of 6000, and 

 this we regard as a very important and in some respects a highly 

 satisfactory feature in the rural economy of these counties. 

 There is no doubt much to be said a^rainst the crowdino- to^^ether 

 of too many of these small holdings, but much more could be 

 hurled against the policy that would completely abolish these 

 little homesteads. A few crofts in an agricultural district are as 

 essential to the welfare and prosperity of that district as farms 

 of five or six hundred acres : the one without the other is incom- 

 plete ; both combined make a perfect whole. Without crofts and 

 small farms the native supply of labour would very soon become 

 exhausted ; and again the frugal, industrious tenants of these 

 small plots of land add largely to the arable area of a county by 

 whole lifetimes of incessant toil with pick and spade. What has 

 been done in this way in the counties of Eoss and Cromarty is 

 really marvellous, in fact many hundreds of acres have been 

 brought under cultivation by the crofters' pick and spade 

 during even the past twenty-five years, and still they are as 

 lively at work as ever. It is invariably the case all over the 

 country that crofters and cotters are planted upon the thinner 

 soils and higher lying tracts of land — tracts that are usually 

 easily reclaimed, but seldom of a kind that would remunerate 

 cultivation on a large scale. Generally speaking, the counties 

 of Eoss and Cromarty form no exception to this rule, though in 

 several districts tliere are a few patches of veiy fine land taken 

 up by crofts. Those who occupy these better soils grow very 

 rich crops both of grain and roots, and by care and frugality 

 they live very comfortably. Some sow small patches of tares 

 and pay their rents by disposing of the seed, while others work 



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