COUNTIES OF ELGIN AND NAIRN. 85 



acre. All over the upper or uiost inland division of the county, 

 where wheat and pot-itoes are not grown to any great extent, the 

 agricultural rental falls very considerably. In Edinkillie and 

 Cromdale, there is a great deal of slieep pasture included with 

 arable land, and consecjuently it is difficult to draw out a correct 

 average, but generally the rent of tlie arable land would run 

 from 15s. to 25s per acre. Along the fertile valley of the Spey 

 the rents range from 15s. to 30s., except in the Knockando 

 district, where there is a slight decline, the soil beinc^ rather thin 

 and the climate uncongenial. Here rents average from 18s. to 

 20s. In the parishes of liothes and Boharm rents vary from 

 15s. to oOs., and average from 24s. to 26s. per acre. 



The rental in the lower half of the county of iSTairn is similar 

 to that in the eastern districts of Morayshire. It runs from 22s. 

 to 40s., and averages from 25s. to 26s. per imperial acre. In the 

 parish of Nairn it is perhaps fully 26s. on an average ; in the 

 parish of Auldearn about 26s.; Cawdor, from 25s. to 32s.; and in 

 j.4.rdclach, where the land is not so fertile and the climate colder, 

 from 5s. to 22s. per acre. In this parish a great extent of hill 

 and rough pasture is rented along with the arable land. 



Speaking generally of both counties, we have to report a very 

 significant rise in the agricultural rental. Let us contrast the 

 total rental of each county in 1842 with that of 1880. The total 

 rented in 1842 of Morayshire was £92,818, which in comparison 

 with the rental of 1880, viz., £118,821, shows the vast increase 

 of £26,003, or 387 per cent. In Nairnshire the total rental of 

 1842 was £16,010, and in 1880, £28,788. It will thus be seen 

 that, daring the past forty years, the rental of the latter county 

 lias been nearly doubled, the increase being £12,778, or 79*8 per 

 cent. Perhaps the following table will show more clearly the 

 substantial increase of tlie past twenty-five years. It exliibits 

 the increase or decrease per cent, of the agricultural rental of 

 Moray and Nairn during the different periods indicated : — 



Ycar.s. 



1853 to 18(53, .... 

 18G3 to 1873, .... 

 1873 to 1875, .... 

 1S75 to 1877, .... 

 1877 to 1880 



* Tlic astei'isk sij^'ii iiuUcates a decrease. 



It will l)e observed that the greatest increase occurred during 

 the decade of 1853-63, which nuiy 1)6 attributed to the abnormal 

 advance in ]>rices caused by the Crimean war. Hie average 

 increase over both counties during the ])ast twenty-five years 

 may be safely stated at 20 or 25 per cent. Some twenty-five or 

 thirty years ago, a number uf rents were paid in kind, mostly in 



