EMIGRATION. 



579 



Emigration 



Woods and 

 plantations 

 must be 

 more valua- 

 ble. 



Manufac- 

 tures would 

 be encoura- 

 ged. 



Artificial 

 manures. 



An impro- 

 ving stvle 

 of agricul- 

 ture would 

 follow. 



Quarries 

 ad mines. 



These ad- 



vama^ts 

 and im- 

 provement* 

 naturally as- 

 sociate with 

 Men other 

 in other dU- 

 rictj of the 

 aagdom. 



i larger po- 

 mlation 

 inight then 



.up;>.,rc- 



extremely useful to the commerce of the kingdom ; 

 and the transit of merchandize and vessels through the 

 canal, must eventually tend to the improvement of the 

 country. 



Planting of forest trees on the great scale may now 

 be accomplished with every prospect of a free market, 

 and ample remuneration. This alone, over a country 

 such as the mainland of the Highlands, may, in time, 

 be an improvement more than sufficient to repay the 

 great expence incurred by the public in opening it up. 

 In the mean time, planting on a liberal scale will adorn 

 and shelter the country, and may become a source of 

 high attraction and elegant amusement for the land- 

 holders. A supply of timber in sufficient abundance in 

 the country, and the use of water-borne coal, may na- 

 turally be expected to furnish means for introducing 

 manufactures, especially that of wool, which is raised 

 in great abundance in the Highlands. 



Facility of conveyance of lime and farm-produce, 

 must naturally suggest to the people of the country to 

 open quarries, and burn the limestone that abounds in 

 many districts ; and there cannot be a doubt of a mar- 

 ket, on a growing scale, for the returns. 



Trade and population require supplies of fat cattle 

 and sheep ; and, of course, many would, in improving 

 circumstances, be fattened within that remote district. 

 This new demand would improve the general style of 

 farming. Green crops and mclosures would be neces- 

 sary on most farms ; and these naturally associate with 

 corn, and require the labours of an increasing popula- 

 tion, furnishing also the means of their subsistence. 



Growing interest and activity naturally discover new 

 sources of employment for the people. The iron forges 

 of the Highlands might be renewed on a greatly im- 

 proved and enlarged scale ; mines and minerals of dif- 

 ferent sorts might be worked to advantage ; quarries of 

 marble, blue slate, or useful stone, would probably be 

 opened ; and this country, so long threatened with 

 desolation, might smile, and might be able to rear and 

 support an augmented population. 



Ignorance alone, or prejudice, can maintain, that 

 sheep farming is inconsistent with such views in the 

 Highlands. Even this legitimate system is imperfect 

 and incomplete, without cultivation. Plantations to 

 shelter the sheep stocks, (which they do admirably, 

 and without being injured, when of sufficient age,) are 

 necessary to the prospering of the improved breeds of 

 sheep ; and no stock or breed of sheep can be brought 

 to perfection, without the benefit of green crops to fat- 

 ten, and of inclosures to separate than, and to enable 

 the farmer to manage them to advantage. The best cul- 

 tivated pastoral districts present such an arrangement ; 

 and they discover such a due proportion of black cattle 

 as is necessary to secure the means of comfort and of 

 improvement, together with the largest returns from 

 the soil. The milk, hides, and tallow of these, afford 

 comfortable means of employment and of subsistence ; 

 and a much greater number of people is maintained, 

 than could have been supported under an exclusive 

 sheep system. Woods, cattle, and the mixed culture 

 of hemp and flax, naturally present extending advan- 

 tages in prosecuting the fisheries, and in attending to 

 various useful manufactures, besides promoting the 

 comfort of the inhabitants, and co-operating with the 

 other modes of improvement in preventing emigration. 



The I liglilands, thus opened up and improved, would 

 furnish useful employment and ample subsistence for a 

 much greater number of inhabitants than they have 

 erer yet contained. It is true, that the remarks made 



3 



above apply chiefly to the mainland, and that other Fmjj-Htm*: 

 views would be necessary in respect of the northern s ""V 

 and western isles. 



If the mere crofting system were all the resource th.it Crofting 

 is now accessible to the Highlanders, it could not much !^fe J 

 be depended on. There is a considerable waste of inadequate, 

 time and labour in it, and the means and skill employ- 

 ed in this way are commonly deficient. No doubt, it 

 may in some degree be useful, particularly if the croft- 

 ers can also find occasional employment as labourers 

 to the farmers ; but an altered and improved system 

 of farming appears to open the great resourse on the 

 mainland. The rise of a competent number of inclo- 

 sures, and a proper stock of cattle, together with cal- 

 careous manures and green crops, and corn of course, 

 properly selected, and cultivated with judgment, would 

 not only furnish employment and subsistence, but 

 would greatly increase the produce and value of those 

 extensive tracts which are capable of improvement ; 

 and the consequence would be, that the country at large 

 would be converted from a sheep-waste into a fertile 

 alpine territory. It would then be in the power of 

 landholders, at a moderate expence, to clothe it with 

 rich and ornamental plantations ; and afterwards that 

 country would present many inducements and attrac- 

 tions to reside in it ; and manufactures, together with 

 the fisheries, would more certainly and extensively 

 prosper. In short, there would no longer be any oc- 

 casion for the people to emigrate in bodies from the 

 mainland of the Highlands. 



With respect to the isles, they already possess two State of the 

 considerable sources of employment, the fisheries and kles. 

 the manufacture of kelp ; but these isles are generally 

 naked, without fences, and, of course, almost in the 

 state of mere wastes, excepting only the lands in til- 

 lage ; and these are incapable of improved cultivation 

 while they are open every winter. The making of 

 kelp, and attention requisite to the fishing business, 

 being commonly in the hands of those who labour the 

 soil, correct and regular cultivation is obstructed, and 

 scarcely practicable. There appears to be no remedy 

 for this, until a regular system of inclosures be intro- 

 duced ; and then it is no exaggerated supposition, that 

 the sheep stocks may become triply valuable, and the 

 cultivated soils greatly more productive. After this 

 plan has been adopted, the regular tillnge of the arable 

 soils will naturally become easier ; and, as proper rota- 

 tions will accompany inclosures, the labour will divide 

 itself into the proper seasons, and fewer hands, regu- 

 larly employed, will perform it. What encroachments 

 may then be made on the waste lands cannot be com- 

 puted ; but they will naturally be of considerable im- 

 portance and extent. Islands possessing a great ex- 

 tent of low situated lands, numerous herds of black 

 cattle, and calcareous manures in many parts of the 

 land or the shores, together with sea-weed, are subjects 

 adapted by nature for improvement ; and the climate 

 is not very unfriendly to early corn, while it suits ad- 

 mirably for turnips, potatoes, and grass with seeds. On 

 the larger islands, and on some of the smaller, stone 

 may be obtained for exterior fences, and sometimes 

 also for subdivisions ; and on these isles where stone 

 cannot be got, ditches well designed, and properly ex- 

 ecuted and preserved in repair, with such hedges as [ ioil ^ pl ^j 

 may best answer according to circumstances, may ope- of improve- 

 rate at once as fence, drain, and shelter. mcnt alrei- 



This general and improved system is no speculation. 'y imrodn- 

 It is already introduced with great advantage by some l * 

 of the most intelligent and public spirited proprietors '' 



