186 A HUNDKED YEARS 



chickweed and spurry into creels, carrying it to the 

 nearest burn, and there washing it to give to the cattle 

 for supper, much to the benefit of the milk-supply ! 

 Also, how beautifully they earthed up their potatoes 

 with the cromanan, whereas now the weeds are often 

 allowed to get to a great height before a horse with a 

 scuffler can be hired or borrowed, for very few four-acre 

 crofts can support a pony besides the cows. 



I can remember a good many crofters who were 

 keen cultivators and prided themselves on the number 

 of bolls of meal they could produce from their crofts. 

 Nowadays hardly a boll of meal is made on any croft, 

 and the mills are mostly derelict and falling to pieces, 

 as neither the man nor the woman will bother them- 

 selves to thresh the sheaves before giving them to the 

 cows. Many of the girls dislike milking a cow, and they 

 will not accept willingly of service where a cow is kept, 

 though they do not object to having cream in their tea 

 if they can get it without trouble to themselves ! 

 I am afraid that education, when it takes the shape of 

 drawing, French, and music, has made the present 

 generation of girls very unsuitable as wives for young 

 west-coast crofters. 



Before the crofters' arable land was turned into four- 

 acre crofts, and the runrig system was done away with, 

 every family in the west went with their cattle for two or 

 three of the summer months to the shieling. In the 

 Lews they still continue this custom. But when the 

 great change was made one of the new ideas for the 

 betterment of the smaller tenants was that they should 

 give up their migrations to the shieling, and consume 



