Improvement of Waste Land in Sutherlandshirc 



361 



moss lying at the base of a hill, which rises 

 up to shelter the valley from the north-west 

 storms. Some of this moss was very deep, 

 but other parts are shallow, with a good deal 

 of clay bottom. Three years ago about 50 

 acres were laid out as a field to be reclaimed. 

 At first the ordinary process of trenching and 

 draining, so far as practicable, was pursued, 

 and then the steam plough was used. The 

 work done was something wonderful. Where 

 neither horses nor men could have been em- 

 ployed the steam plough tore through every- 

 thing. It could be worked also with perfect 

 ease, and in a few days the subsoil was turned 

 over and laid out for fallow during the winter. 

 Peat of itself will not answer, but v^'ith lime, 

 sand, clay, and guano or other manures it 

 becomes good soil, and ultimately yields 

 .abundant returns. This summer the ground 

 was harrowed by steam power. Nothing 

 ■could have been more satisfactory than the 

 process of harrowing, and now the field is 

 ready for cropping. Under the old system 

 this work could not have been done at all. 

 In some districts where friable peat and hard 

 waste land had been cultivated, the expense 

 was not less than ^^5 an acre ; but here the 

 cost up to the present time is only 33s., and 

 not hkely to exceed ^^2 an acre. Neverthe- 

 lese, 10,000 acres are marked off for cultiva- 

 tion \ but in truth there does not appear to 

 be any limit to the work which the steam 

 plough and harrow may now do among the 

 waste lands of Sutherland. 



The only drawback to the perfect working 

 of the steam plough in very rough land, and 

 especially where there are boulders and old 

 tree roots, is the risk of the breakage of gear 

 obstructions. To remedy this defect the 

 Duke is about to work a plough with a re- 

 volving cutter — that is, a coulter which will 

 cut its way smoothly until it meets with a 

 root or boulder stone, when it will pass over 

 it with a rotatory motion, leaving such a 

 mark as may enable the ploughman to send 

 a labourer to take out the stone or tree by 

 other means. What is thus done in mosses 

 may be done on hill sides, and the steam 

 plough with its improvements will revolu- 

 tionize the agriculture of the north. 



But the Duke of Sutherland's experiments 

 comprehend mure than this. He is utilizing 

 surface peat by making it into composite 

 fuel, and if this succeed a great public 

 gain will accrue to Scotland. The project 

 had its rise thus : — Mr Forrester had a lot of 

 sawdust lying in his way about the mill, when 

 the idea occurred to him that if it could be 

 cemented together with peat it might be 

 converted into good fuel for his engine. He 

 therefore prepared a plan of a machine to do 

 the mixing, and submitted it to the Duke, 

 who at once approved it and suggested some 

 improvements. They were adopted, the ma- 

 chine was set to work under steam power, and 

 in a short time cakes of composite fuel 

 were produced. It occurred to the Duke 

 that if small coal or slack were used as well 

 as sawdust, or without the sawdust, a still 

 better article might be obtained. This was 

 tried, and with promising results. It is difli- 

 cult to describe this process ; but some idea 

 may be formed of it when we state that the 

 machine is erected on a large open space 

 near the mass. It has a shaft 9 feet long. 

 From the centre to the end on which there is 

 no journal there are fourteen knives, with 

 other knives set at right angles, which, are 

 turned at the rate of 120 revolutions a 

 minute. The peat is thrown in, and with 

 the coal and sawdust soon comes out again 

 in a mixed state of sufficient consistency to 

 be wheeled away to the drying ground, where 

 it is put into a mould frame, prepared for the 

 drying field and racked. In the course of a 

 week the cakes are ready for use if the 

 weather be fine, and then it is found that 

 sixty of the sawdust peats are equal to i cwt. 

 of best Sunderland coal, and cost 25 per 

 cent, less money, while thirty of the coal 

 composites are set down as of this strength 

 and value. If the cakes can be dried by 

 artificial means, and there seems no good 

 reason why they should not be thus dried, 

 there will soon be abundance of peat fuel in 

 Scotland, and the successful working of this 

 invention will greatly facilitate tlie cultivation 

 of moss land, for it will clear the way to the 

 deeper moss and the clay which underlies 

 much of it, so that in a few years we may ex- 



