COUNTIES OF EOSS AND CROMARTY. 175 



holds out wind, and on the whole it has very little to recommend 

 it. As already stated, there are a good many travelling steam 

 thrashing mills in these counties, and when the markets are 

 inviting large c^uantities of grain are thrashed early in the 

 season. 



Wlieat. — The following table shows the acreage in both 

 counties under wheat at various periods since 1854:-^ 



The price of wheat has been rather low for a few years back, 

 and as a natural consequence the cultivation of it all over Scotland 

 is gradually decreasing. Koss and Cromarty form no exception 

 to this rule ; and unless prices brighten up again very soon, the 

 rent of wheat-growing land must necessarily decline. With 

 regard to their acreage under wheat Eoss and Cromarty stand 

 fifth in Scotland, and in point of yield and quality they usually 

 rank even a little higher. Over these counties generally wheat 

 yields on an average from 3i to 4 J quarters, and weighs from 61 

 to 63 lbs., the standard selling weight being 62 lbs. In Easter 

 Eoss and on the better soils in the Black Isle and Mid Eoss the 

 yield usually averages from 4 to 5 quarters, and the weight 

 varies from 62 to 64 lbs. Even as many as 6 and 7 quarters, 

 weighing 64 and 65 lbs., are occasionally grown on some of the 

 richer soils and better managed farms, but these are rare excep- 

 tions. It is a curious fact that previous to the advent of the 

 13resent century the Crown feu-duties in Eoss and Cromarty, 

 which were payable chiefly in kind, convertible at the fiars 

 prices of corn, were fixed at two -thirds of the fiars of Fifeshire, 

 and not according to the fiars then struck of the Eoss and 

 Cromarty grain. In 1868 the fiars prices in Eoss and Cromarty, 

 for wheat, were for first quality, L.2, 8s. 9|d. ; for second, L.2, 4s. 

 10|d. ; in 1874 for the whole crop, L.2, Is. lid. ; and for the 

 seven years from 1868 to 1874, both inclusive, the average was 

 L.2, 8s. 3^d. The highest prices were in 1873 and 1871, when 

 the fiars were respectively L.2, 18s. 3jd. and L.2, 17s. 8Jd. The 

 above average for these seven years was exceeded by six Scotch 

 counties, viz.: — Kirkcudbright, L.2, 9s. llf d ; Haddington, 

 L.2, 9s. 11 Jd.; Eoxburgh, L.2, 9s. 6d.; Berwick, L.2, 9s.; Elgin, 

 L.2, 8s. 9d. ; and Nairn, L.2, 8s. 6d. By far the greater portion 

 of the wheat crop is sown in autumn, as soon as the land can be 

 cleared of turnips, or grass when wheat follows pasture, but this 

 system is not i)ursued so extensively as some fifteen or twenty 

 years ago. AVhen it is sown after grass the laud is manured 

 with from 15 to 25 loads of farm-yard manure per acre, and well 



