Capital applied to Agriculture 



569 



furrow of 10 inches will, I maintain, give a 

 better and quicker return for the capital ex- 

 pended than any additional depth that can 

 be got, that is, if the condition of the land is 

 efficiently kept up. From the high prices of 

 lean stock and the small margin left for feeding 

 it, as it is at present, we ought perhaps, with 

 our climate to breed even more than we do, 

 and leave a larger part of the feeding to 

 those who have lands and climate better 

 adapted for it. The aim of the stockholder 

 is always to make the quickest and largest 

 returns, and with the high-class feeding he 

 now follows he must at a glance be able to 

 tell whether or not his animals are making 

 the proper advancement with the relative ex- 

 pense. In the use of extraneous manures. 



he must be able to tell what proportion of 

 ammonia and phosphates is requisite with 

 the condition of his land to produce certain 

 crops ; and in the use of foreign foods for the 

 feeding of his stock, he must in the mixing 

 of these and in the using of them as 

 auxiliaries to his own, find the most economi- 

 cal at given prices, or what will produce the 

 largest amount of flesh and fat at least cost to 

 himself; always bearing in mind that if at the 

 marketable value of the lean stock, and at 

 the cost of his extraneous foods, with the 

 price that he gets for his fat, he has at once 

 a direct profit, he is adding no less than 20 

 per cent, of his outlay to his capital in the 

 soil by the residue left in the manure of the 

 animals. 



SOMETHING ABOUT DEEF FORESTS. 



MR JAMES W. BARCLAY has been 

 investigating the subject of deer 

 forests Avith a view to ascertain the profits 

 which would possibly accrue to the pro- 

 prietors were sheep grazed on the vast ex- 

 tent of pasture at present given up entirely 

 to the support of deer in the north of Scot- 

 land. The results, as communicated to the 

 Aberdeen Free Press, are as follows :— 



Fortunately there is still in Braemar suffi- 

 cient sheep farming to show v^hat may be 

 done with sheep in that district, and to form 

 the basis for determining, with practical ac- 

 curacy, the capabilities of j\Iar Forest as 

 sheep grazings. 



The farms of Baddoch and Auchallater, on 

 the Braemar Estates of Invercauld, lie con- 

 tiguous to Mar Forest, and are occupied as 

 sheep grazings and grouse shootings. They 

 are situated in the upper part of Glen Clunie, 

 on the north face of the Grampians, and ex- 

 tend from within about 2 miles of the Dee, 

 backwards to the summits of the range. Mar 

 Forest bounds Baddoch farm on the north- 

 west for 4 or 5 miles, and extends down to 

 the Dee, near Castleton. From this south- 



VOL. IX. 



east boundary the forest stretches north, 

 westwards round the sources of the 

 Dee, covering the slopes between Aber- 

 deen and Inverness, and the southern faces 

 of the mountains which rise from the left 

 bank of the Dee to Benmuichdui and 

 Bena'an. The lowest part of the Baddoch 

 grazings is 1400 feet, and of the Auchallater 

 1250 feet above the level of the sea. Not 

 over 1000 acres of both farms lie under 1500 

 feet, and the average elevation of the whole 

 may be about 2000 feet. Judging from in- 

 spection of the Ordnance Survey Map, the 

 average elevation of Mar Forest is not 

 greater than that of Baddoch and Auchalla- 

 ter, and on the whole, skilful sheep farmers 

 thoroughly acquainted with the district, are 

 of opinion that the capabilities of these two 

 farms as sheep grazings are certainly not 

 greater than the average of Mar Forest. 



The population, stock, produce, and rent 

 of these two farms will therefore form a basis 

 for determining with substantial accuracy the 

 l^opulation Mar Forest would employ, the 

 number of live stock it would maintain, the 

 quantity of butcher meat and wool it would 



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