Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF PERTHSHIRE. 



1145 



9. Live Stock. ^^ 



Black cattle of Fife .ong disUnguished. The reporter has 

 heard an English dealer say, that a Fife bullock of forty 

 stone will bring an equal, and often a higher, price at the 

 London market than an English bullock ten stone heavier, 

 and equally fat. A good Fife cow wUl give from hve to seven 

 gallons of milk per day; from seven to nine pounds of butter, 

 and from ten to twelve pounds of cheese per week, tron weight, 

 for some months after calving. , ,^ 



Breweries, distilleries, flour and barley mills, frequent. The 

 linen manufacture extensive. Salt made from the sea. 



character ; and such members as shall be found guilty of crime* 

 and misdemeanors punishable by the laws of the land, are 

 liable to expulsion, and a total deprivation of all benefit from 

 the Society's fund. No memtjer can draw any thing from the 

 fund till it amounts to 500/. ; neither can any one be entitled to 

 any allowance, until five years after his admission. The allow- 

 ance fixed for a member fallen into distress or indigence, is 

 thirty shillings per quarter ; but this allowance is granted upon 

 the exiiress condition, that he has not brought the distress upon 

 himself by drunkenness, or any other kind of disorderly con- 

 duct. And during the time he is receiving the allowance, if 

 he shall be found guilty of a dissolute or immoral behavior, it 

 is put in the power of the managers to deprive him of it. 

 The widow of a meml>er is allowed twenty-five shillings 

 quarterly, so long only as she remains his widow, and main- 

 tains a good character. And the children,when no widow is lefl, 

 are entitled to draw the half of what their father contributed. 

 If a member shall die, and leave neither widow nor children, 

 his next heir, or whoever shall be appointed by him, shall be 

 entitled to the half of what he has contributed, after deducting 

 a proportional share of the expenses incurred by the society 

 since his entry. This society is, at piesent, in a very respect- 

 able and flourishing condition. 



Tanneries, vitriol, &c. 



The Fife Farming Society and the Inverketthing Club, sup- 

 ported chiefly by farmers, are considered useful institutions. 

 The first was formed about six years ago, and at present 

 consists of nearly 200 members. The principal objects amed 

 at by this institution are, a mutual communication of disco- 

 veries and improvements in husbandry; common protection 

 against thieves and depredators who shall unjustly invade 

 their property ; and raising a joint stock or capital for the be- 

 nefit of their widows and children, and of members reduced to 

 distress or indigence. Meml>ers pay one guinea at their entry, 

 and half-a-guinea yearly. None are admitted but men of good 



7663. PERTHSHIRE. 4,068,640 acres, almost every where mountainous, but with intervening vales 

 of strong clayey soils, fertile in corn ; some gravelly tracts, and many mosses, bogs, and moors. The 

 mountains on the southern side of the county, where thev are less high, are covered with pasture to the 

 summits ; those in the northern parts with pasture, heitn, and copse. The minerals are coal, lime, free- 

 stone, slate, whinstone, granite, &c. the metallic ores, iron, lead, and copper, neither of which are at pre- 

 sent worked. This county serves to divide that part of Scotland on the south, which is generally adapted 

 to the raising of grain, from that of the north, which, with few exceptions, is more fitted for pasture. It 

 also divides those parts of the kingdom on the north, where firs abounded in former times, and are still 

 found in the mosses, from those in the south, which carried oaks and a variety of other wood, but no na- 

 tural firs. It is also the general boundary, in regard to coal and granite, though both are found to a 

 moderate extent, the former in the north, and the latter in the south. The husbandry of Perthshire is noted 

 for its clay, or carse land culture, and for its plantations of larch trees. Its great improvers have been, or 

 are. Lord Kaimes, the Duke of Athol, and Lord Bredalbane. {Dr. Robertson's General View, 1813.) 



the black gean of Castlemenzies, are highly esteemed in re- 

 spect of beauty and relish, ^ 



4. Woods and Plantations.. 



The Highlands of Scotland formerly covered with wood, as 

 the trunks of oaks and firs in the mosses, from that of Moss- 

 Hunders, near Stirling, to the bogs of Sutherland md Caith- 

 ness, decidedly prove. Planting did not become general in 

 Perthshire, till after the middle of the eighteenth century. The 

 county is now distinguished by its extensive tracts of laich, 

 common pine, and other trees, and by the enclosure of oak, 

 d ' ' ' ' " " - 



1. Property. 



Estates are of all sizes, but the greater number large. The 

 management of the great estates was uniformly committed 

 in former times to the factor or chamberlain ; but agriculture 

 has become so much the amusement of the country gentlemen, 

 since the middle of the last century, that many of the proprie- 

 tors, besides the general sui)erintendance of their estates, have 

 a farm in their own possession, which they manage by an over- 

 seer. Many of our improvements in agriculture are suggestetl 

 by the gentlemen of the army, in consequence of their remarks 

 on the practice of other countries. The gentlemen of the law, 

 during the recess of their courts of judicature, turn much of 

 their attention to the cultivation of their estates ; and their 

 habits of application to the former study, quickens their ardor, 

 and ensures their success in pursuit of the latter. 

 If the property be extensive, besides an overseer on the land- 

 lord's farm, there is generally a factor or steward, and some- 

 times two or more are appointed to manage the more distant 

 parts of the. estate. In these cases, unless the landlord have a 

 turn for business, he is apt to lose sight of the detail of his own 

 affairs ; and if he be indolent, he has a good apology for neg- 

 lecting his interest, because he pays another person for taking 

 that charge otf his hand. The prosperity of the estate, and the 

 comfort of the tenants, depend in these cases very much on the 

 disposition of the factor. 



'The boundaries of estates are marked according to the na- 

 ture of the country. In the vallies of the Highlands, different 

 properties are separated either by substantial stone-walls with- 

 out mortar (provincially dry stone dykes), or by a river, or a 

 brook, or a range of rocks, or some other natural limit. The 

 lower hills too are sometimes bisected by these walls; but 

 more generallv by bounding stones, fixed in the ground, and 

 set up singly ;"in other instances, if the stones be small, they 

 are piled in heaps. The higher mountains are frequently di- 

 vided in a similar manner, especially when different proprie- 

 tors occupy the same side; but when they occupy different 

 sides of the same ridge or general line of mountain, as com- 

 monly happens between parallel (jlens, their properties are 

 determined as wind and water divides, which means the line 

 of partition on the top of the mountain between the windward 

 and lee-side, or as it is still more nicely marked by the ten- 

 dency of rain water, after it falls upon the ground. 



A great proportion of this county is freehold. Many of the 

 small proprietors hold of a subject superior. When a great 

 baron in the feudal times had occasion to borrow money, he 

 had recourse to wadsetts, or feued off a part of his property at 

 a quit-rent, which was greater or less, according to the amount 

 of the premium that was paid in hand. The wadsetts are paid 

 up ; but the feus, being irredeemable, remain. 



^. Occupation. 



Arable farms from 30 to 500 acres. Farms in the moun- 

 tains large, and their extent generally defined by miles. Leases 

 seldom shorter than nineteen years endurance. Rent in a 

 lew instances, partly in money and partly in the money va- 

 lue of com, on an average of two or three by-gone years, ac- 

 cording to the modem system. The culture requires scarcely 

 any remark, since there are only two kinds of aration in Scot- 

 land, that of the clay soils of East Lothian, in which a fallow 

 and alternate corn and green crops are introduced ; and that of 

 Berwickshire, which substitutes turniiis for fallow, and 

 allows from two to five years of pasture, according as the soil 

 is weaker or stronger as resting crops. A full account of the 

 clay land culture has been given by Donaldson. In the 

 mountainous region, cattle chiefly, and sheep to a certain ex- 

 tent, are bred and sold for feeding in the low arable districts, 

 and sent to the south of Scotland and England. 



3. Gardens and Orchards. 



In the Carse of Gowrie, a number (perhaps thirty )'of orchards 

 of apples and pears, the fruit of which is sold to the neighbor- 

 ing towns. A few other parts of the county adapted to open 

 orchards, as the banks of the Tay, Eam, &c. In the vallies of 

 the Higlilands, geans and cherries alxiund. The trees thrive 

 well, Ine long, and carry fmit of the finest flavor and most 

 savory taste. The cream colored cherry of Ardvorlich, and 



birch, and hazel ; copses and woods formerly left open to the 

 browsing of deer and cattle. Different accounts have been given 

 of the introduction of the larch into this county. Dr. Robert- 

 son states it, as " said to be brought to Athol, from Camiola, 

 by one of the Dukes of Argyle." According to others, the first 

 plants were obtained from" a nursery at Edinburgh, and planted 

 at Dunkeld in 1741, having been previously introduced into 

 Scotland, bylLord Kaimes, in 1734. (Eruyclopadia of Gardening, 

 7053.) Some of the first planted larches in the low grounds, 

 near Dunkeld, have grown to the height of 120 feet in fifty 

 years, which gives an average of two feet four and a quarter 

 inches a year. It is stated by the Duke of Athol, in a commu- 

 nication to the HorticulturEd Society, made in June, 1820, 

 that on mountainous tracts, at an elevation of 1500 or 1600 

 feet, the larch, at eighty years of age, has arrived at a size to 

 produce six loads (300 cubic feet) of timber, appearing in dura- 

 bility and every other ouality, to be likely to answer every 

 purpose, both by sea and Jand. (Hort. Tram. iv. 416.) 



" The largest larches in Perthshire, or perhaps in several 

 counties around it, are at Monzie, the seat of General Camp- 

 bell, which measure five feet in diameter, and about fifteen m 

 circumference. There are larches of a great size at Blair 

 Drummond, Gleneagles, Rossie, and many other places in 

 Perthshire. Posts oflarch, which had been put into a moist 

 soil about fifteen years ago, seemed still to be fresh and strong. 

 It is only of late that this tree has been generally planted, and 

 its excellence known in this country. It is the most rapid in 

 its growth of any tree we have, and the most valuable species of 

 the pine. It is closer in the pores, has fewer knots, and the 

 wood is more durable than the common pine, and withal it in- 

 creases double the nmnber of cubical feet, in any given time ; 

 which is a sinj^lar property. It may vie in growth and profit 

 with the Huntington willow, which has been said to buy the 

 horse, before any other tree could buy the saddle." 



There is a natural fir wood on the south side of Loch Ran- 

 noch which covers 2566 acres. One formerW existed on the 

 Bredalbane estate, but there are now only a few gleanings. 



There are more oak tvoods, and of greater value, in this 

 county, than in all the rest of Scotland. The counties of Dun- 

 barton, Argyle, and Stirling, come next to that of Perth. The 

 copse of oak is cut once in twenty -four or twenty -six years. A 

 few spare trees of the most promising appearance and of the 

 best figure are left at proper distances, from one cutting to an- 

 other, and sometimes for three or four cuttings. The straight- 

 est are generally spared, without attending to this circum- 

 stance, that crooked oak is more eagerly sought after by 

 ship-builders, and brings a higher price, than oak which ia 

 straight. Yet, as coppice wood is the object, straight trees 

 injure it least. Scotch oak has been found in general too close 

 in the grain to bend into nlanks for the sides of ships, and even 

 for the same reason it is found to snap when used as ribs to a 

 shiji : its closeness in the grain is the effect of slow growth, 

 owing to frequent checks by early and late frosts. 



Before agricultural improvements were so well understood as 

 they are of late, or occupied so much of the attention of all 

 ranks in this country, many moorish tracts of land were deemed 

 incapable of cultivation, or of making a return in any other 

 way equal to their being planted. Proprietors, even in the 

 Carse of Gowrie, and in the Stormont, being actuated 

 by tliis principle, about thirty vears ago, planted the waste 

 lands of their estates with Scotch firs. They have now found 

 that this soil, by being wrought, will make good arable land, 

 and will be more profitably employed in tillage. Some thou- 

 sands of acres have accordingly been cleared; the plantatiom 



