80 THE AGEICULTUKE OF THE 



mill is blown through a wide tube, 60 feet long, into the grain 

 loft, the tube making a right angle turn at its highest point. 

 Eeing in the immediate vicinity of the burgh of Nairn, Mr 

 Kelmau has started a dairy for supplying the town with milk. 

 This is an institution which was very much needed, and is now 

 being esteemed. The present dairy stock is composed of about 

 twenty cows of the best Ayrshire and cross breeds. To these 

 very succulent food is given, as it is found to be efhcacious in 

 sustaining and improving the milking properties of the animals. 

 Mr Kelman has also a very nice black polled bull and a number 

 <jf fattening cattle. The feeding stock are kept in a commodious 

 half-covered court. His horses are strong and active, and work 

 from 80 to 100 acres a pair. The proprietor has planted about 

 2 acres of arable land along the public roadside, and has also 

 planted from 7 to 8 acres of land on the neighbouring farm of 

 Crook within the past few years. 



On the estate of Mrs Anne Agnew Mackintosh or AValker is 

 the large and superior farm of Heathmount, tenanted by Mr 

 George M'Beth. It covers an area of 175 arable acres, and is 

 rented at £283. In this district the rent of arable land runs 

 from 22s. to 40s., whereas in the upper districts of the county it 

 ranges from os. to 20s. The soil is good and the climate genial 

 The tenant is strictly bound to the five-shift rotation. Oats 

 yield from 3-J- to 6 quarters per acre, and are seldom under 

 42 lbs. in weight ; barley, from 3 to 5 quarters, weighing about 

 56 lbs. per bushel. About 20 loads of dung and from 4 to 7 

 cwt. artificial manure is given per acre to land for the green 

 crop. The implements of husbandry have undergone great 

 improvement since 1850. Then threshing corn with the "flail" 

 was a daily occurrence, and now the crop is all thrashed with 

 machinery, and a great part, particularly of barley, with steam. 

 Crops are all reaped with reapers. The proprietrix has done 

 much in the way of improving buildings. Cattle are chiefly of 

 the cross breed, and are sold off when fat, weighing from 5 to 6 

 cwt. each. Mr M'Beth buys in sheep in the autumn, feeds 

 them on turnips, and sells them in March or April. The farm 

 horses are good, and work from 50 to 75 acres a pair. 



On the western side of this parish is the estate of Lochdhu, 

 which is 754 acres in extent, of which there are 684 acres of 

 arable land, 30 of pasture, and 40 under wood. In 1866-67 the 

 yearly value of the property was £263, 18s. 9d., and now it is 

 worth £650, 9s. 3d. per annum. Over the estate the soil varies 

 from moss, sand, and loam to gravel. There are only two farms 

 on the property, one 544 acres and the other 140 acres in extent. 

 Commodious steadings Imve been built within the past ten 

 years. The farms are ringfenced and subdivided with wire. 

 There was no fencing thirty years ago. Eoads generally are 



