COUNTIES OF ELGIX AND NAIEX. 91 



Grain Cro'ps. 



Among the eleven ''corn" counties in Scotland, viz., Aber- 

 deen, Banff; jVIoray, Berwick, Fife, Forfar, Haddington, Kincar- 

 dine, Nairn, Orkney, and Pioss and Cromarty, Moray and Xairn 

 rank eighth and ninth respectively as regards the percentage of 

 the total area under corn. At present the percentage of Moray 

 is 11-8, and of Nairn 67; while in the former in 1870 the per- 

 centage was 11-7, and in the latter 6-7. In reference to the 

 subjoined table, the number of acres under all kinds of grain 

 crops, at various periods since 1857, will be seen. 



These figures show that in Moray there has been a steady in- 

 crease during the past twenty-five years, but that there has been 

 a decline of 4o28 acres in the number of acres under grain crops 

 in Nairnshire since 1857. In both counties there are large 

 quantities of really excellent grain grown. It may be said, if a 

 line was drawn from the extreme eastern to the extreme western 

 point of Morayshire, keeping it at a distance of eight or ten miles 

 from the sea, it would cut away the wheat and barley portion of 

 the county to the north, and have the principal districts for the 

 production of oats to the south. AVheat and barley are the 

 stajjle crops in the " Laigh of Moray," while the soil in the upper 

 portion of the county, as well as over the whole of Nairnshire, is 

 pre-eminently adapted for raising oats. Barley is also pretty 

 extensively grown in the Braes of Moray, and, in fact, more 

 or less extensively over the whole of both counties. In the 

 parishes of Dufl'us and I)rainie, as well as other parishes, wheat 

 was at one time more plentifully grown than now, but in most 

 districts it has been slowly giving place to barley, l^rquhart, 

 St Andrews, Drainie, Duffus, Alves, Kinloss, and Forres are 

 all well adapted for the cultivation of wheat. Winter wheat is 

 sown in the end of autunm, and the other varieties as soon after 

 the middle of the month of March as ])08sible. The grain in the 

 lowlands has for a number of years been sown mostly by 

 machinery. The sowing machines are found to do the work 

 very equally and profitably. The date of harvest varies con- 

 sideral)ly, but, as a rule, in the lowlands reaping is in full swing 

 by the 1st of September. In inland districts, where the climate 



