102 ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE 



in a similar way with beans. Many hundreds of these crofters 

 are located in the Black Isle, chiefly on the more elevated parts, 

 and of how these " live and move and have their being " some 

 idea will be had from our remarks upon the ancient commonty 

 of Mulbuie. Both in Mid and Easter Eoss crofts and small 

 farms lie in scores, chiefly in straths and river sides along the 

 eastern base of the irregular range of hills that occupy such 

 an immense extent of the western division of Eoss-shire. These 

 holdings vary from 5 to 20 acres in extent, and only in a 

 few cases have the whole been brought under cultivation. The 

 bringing of these crofts to what they are has been the 

 work of hundreds of years, and even yet there is much to 

 be done. In too many cases the little fields are unshapely and 

 unequally divided, while small unseemly patches of waste land 

 frequently lie into the arable land in dovetail fashion : 

 occasionally, in fact, these ugly patches are to be seen right in 

 the centre of an arable field. Time, however, is gradually dis- 

 pelling these uupleasant features of the crofting system, and 

 where they have already disappeared, and where taste and care 

 have been bestowed on the cultivating of the land, the homestead 

 of the crofter has a quiet comfortable serenity about it that is 

 very pleasing to observe. The produce of these small holdings 

 of course is not sufficient to maintain a large family, and the 

 home-revenue is eked out by employment which is always to be 

 had on the neiohbourinc^ farms. Alonoj the west coast there are 

 many hundreds of crofters, but these work on a rather different 

 system from the majority of those on the east coast. Their 

 holdiuQ-s rans^e from 5 to 10 acres in extent, little more than one- 

 half of which is under cultivation, and instead of eking out the 

 produce of their land by agricultural labour they ply the oar and 

 net, and in a good fishing season they make a very comfortable 

 living. Generally speaking, however, the crofters on the west 

 coast, chiefly because of the want of agricultural employment in 

 the neighbourhood, are not so well to do as their brethren in the 

 eastern districts of Eoss and Cromarty. Their houses are 

 generally bad ; and in some cases they are mere hovels, combin- 

 ing under one roof the crofter's abode and cow byre. These 

 little houses are usually divided into three apartments by low 

 loose w^ooden partitions — one for the cows, one for the crofter 

 and his family to sit and eat in, and one for beds for sometimes 

 six or seven grown-up men and women. On Sir Kenneth S. 

 Mackenzie's estate of Gairloch there are some 400 or 500 crofters, 

 whose holdings average only about 5 acres, of which there is 

 frequently little more than one-half under cultivation. They 

 have all a share in a common outrun for sheep and cattle, but 

 their living is in the main derived from the sea and from wages 

 earned in the south in summer, The co^arsc of cropping 



