Part IV: Agricultural Economy in General 



GREAT BRITAIN. 



THE SCOITISH I,AXD COURT IN 1915. (i) 



OFFICIAI, SOURCE: 



Report by the Scottish I^and Court as to their Proceedings under the Small landholders 

 (Scotland) Acts 1886 to 191 1, i and 2 Geo. v. Cap. 49, for the year from ist January 

 to 31st Decetnbre 1915. 



§ I. Scottish Systems of Land Tenure. 



The systems of land tenure in Scotland may be classified under four 

 main headings : 



a) The crofter tenure. — A typical crofter's holding consists of a small 

 extent of arable land on which are a cottage and other buildings. pro\dded 

 by the crofter himself or one of his predecessors, and of a right of 

 common in mountain and heath grazing lands. Crofter holdings are 

 found in the Northern and Western Highlands and Islands, and mainly in 

 the so-called " crofting counties " which are Argyll, Caithness, Inverness, 

 Orknc}', Ross and Cromarty, Shetland and Sutherland. These counties 

 extend over 14,000 square miles or nearly half the total area of Scotland, 

 but they included in 191 2 only 15 per cent, of the cultivated land of the 

 country. Their larger part is untilled moorland. 



In 191 2 the average area of land attached to a holding in the crofting 

 counties was 24 acres. But in some districts, especially in the island of 

 Lewis, tliis average was not nearly reached. 



Before the Crofters' Holdings Act of 1886 and succeecUng legislation 

 a crofter held his land only from year to year. The landlord had unre- 

 stricted power at each year's end either to e\dct him or to raise his rent. The 

 crofter who improved his holding was therefore first in doubt as to whether 

 he would be able enjoy the effect of his improvements, and secondly in fear 

 that their most immediate effect would be the increase of his rent. 



(i) Cf. in our issue for February 1914, p. 103, « Small Holdings in Scotland and the 

 Effects of Recent I^egislation regarding them », and in our issue for September 1915, p. 85 

 u Proposals for I^and Reform in Scotland ». 



