Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF ABERDEENSHIRE. 



1147 



hia piDiMHTt;, or lus domestlo conoemg,^ without having half a 

 dozen, or a score of priests' to advise him : and he was obliged to 

 impound for the safety of his soul, and the security of his pro- 

 perty, by ample donations to the church. When a man died 

 without granting these donations, it was presumed to l)e his 

 intention to do so ; and what was originally an alms, or favor, 

 wis claimed as a right. In oxxr days, a man can hardly ven- 

 ture upon any step of importance, without having a posse of 

 lawyers at his elbow, and after all, often finds himself a.s far 

 from his purpose, as if he had not employed them. 



3. Buildings. 



Sixty gentlemen's seats enumerated : not many with hand- 

 some buildings. Farm-houses and cottages most wretched, 

 and slower of improvement than in most other counties* 



4. Occupation. 

 Farms of all sizes, but chiefly small. On the Grampians, 



estimated by the number of sheep they will maintain. 



5. Implements. 

 Old Scotch plough still used in a few remote places, and found 



an instrument well adapted for breaking up waste land that 

 is encumbered with the roots of shrubs, or with stones. At no 

 remote jieriod, it was usual to yoke four or six horses abreast 

 in this plough. The driver walked backwards before the 

 horses, and struck them in the face to make them come for- 

 ward. At present this plough is commonly drawn by four, 

 sometimes by six horses, which are yoked in pairs, and the 

 tlrlver walks beside them. But, excepting for the purposes 

 already specified, the plough which was first invented by the 

 late Small, near Dalkeith, and from him named Small's 

 plough, is universally used. 



A threshing; machine, of a very peculiar construction, adapted 

 to very high falls of water, erected at Howmuir, by Stirling, an 

 ingenious man ; but is not yet perfected, and if it were, could 

 never become general. 



A pick or lever with a tread, used in the same manner as a 

 fork or spade, for loosening hard earth or gravel : in feict it may 

 be called a one pronged fork. 



6 Tillage. 



Fallowing general. Seed-wheat washed with a ley of soft 

 soan, to remove the smut. Potatoes introduced to the gardens 

 in 1745, but not to the fields for many vears afterwards. The 

 late Dr. Walker, Professor of Natural History in the Univer- 

 sity of Edinburgh, was in the habit, especially during years of 

 scarcity, of using yams in place of bread in his own family. 

 He cut them into thin slices, and either brandered them on the 

 fire, or dressed them in the frying-pan with as much butter as 

 prevented the pan from burning. \Vhen dressed in this way, 

 their taste was very pleasant ; and they were used in all cases 

 where bread is commonly used. 



7. Gardens and Orchards. 



A great prejudice in favor of covering wall trees with 



Woods and Plantations. 



Few woods, but manv plantations. In the mossa the 

 trunks of large trees found. 



9. Rural Econom,y. 



Farm-servants live chiefly on oatmeal, and potatoes and 

 milk. Their breakfast is porridge, which is made by stirring 

 meal among boiling water, or milk, in a pot over the fire, with 

 a little salt ; and when it cools it is eaten with milk. Chr they 

 use broae, which is made by pouring warm water upon meal, in 

 a wooden dish, with a little salt, taking care to stir it well. This 

 also is eaten with milk, or with beer, which is furnished in 

 place of milk, when the latter is scarce. Sometimes, when 

 they are in a hurry, they mix the liijuid with the meal, in a 

 cold state. Their usual dinner is oat cake, with sometimes 

 butter or skimmed milk cheese, and milk. Their supper is 

 the same with breakfast, except that sometimes they use 

 sowens, or potatoes, in the place of porridge or brose. Butch- 

 er's meat is only used on particular occasions; and fish by 

 those who are near the rivers and the sea coast. 



Much ridicule has been thrown on the Scotch, on account 

 of their immediate use of oat-meal. This has been repre- 

 sented as inflaming their blood, and producing their favorite 

 disease called the Scotch fiddle, and other cutaneous eruptions. 

 But oatmeal is as much used in some districts of England, as 

 in any part of Scotiand ; and cutaneous eruptions are much 

 more frequent in some of these districts than they are here, 

 where they are seldom or ever heard of. The latter ought 

 rather to be ascribed to dirty linen or clothing, than to oat- 

 meal, or any particular species of food. Oatmeal, when it is 

 sufficiently diluted with any sort of liquid, is known to tie a 

 laxative aperient, wholesome, and atthe same time a strengthen- 

 ing food for those engaged in hard labor. Engineers, who super- 

 intend the excavation of canals, have assured^the reporter, that 

 those laborers who lived entirely upon oatmeal and milk, did a 

 third more work than those who used butcher-meat, beer, and 

 spirits. All of the former saved money, while many of the 

 latter involved themselves in debt. As this sort of work is 

 done by the piece, it aftbrds a fair comparison, not only of the 

 wholesomeness of oatmeal in promoting health, but of its 

 power in supplying labor. 



All families that have a house of their own, use tea and 

 wheaten bread. But among cottagers this is a rare, and always 

 a ceremonious entertainment, at christening and other solemn 

 occasions. 



Several agricultural societies ; the first founded by Dempster 

 of Dunnichen, an eminent improver. An account of the native 

 plants and animals of the county by Don, the celebrated 

 Scotch botanist, who resided at Forfar, possesses great interest 

 for the naturalist. Indeed, the whole surrey ranks, in this 

 respect, with that of Farey of Derbyshire. 



7065. KINCARDINESHIRE or MEARNS. 213,444 acres chiefly of mountain, but containing about 

 one-third of culturable surface. The climate is severe and chilly. The soil is gravelly, mossy, or clayey, 

 and scarcely any where naturally fertile. The only minerals are lime, found in a few parts, and granite, 

 whin, and freestone. Improvements commenced in this county about the middle of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, and have since been carried on with great spirit {Robertson's General View, 1795.) 



_ 1. Property, 



^ In fewi hands : largest estate 40,715 acres, the rest in eighty 



or ninety estates. 



2. Buildings. 



Some old farm-houses still remain, built of stone and turf, 

 and in all respects wretched ; but as leases are renewed, new 

 farmeries are erected on the most improved plans, with com- 

 modious dwelling-houses. So much cannot be said of the cot- 

 tages, which have undergone very littie alteration in structure, 

 for a long tract of time. The habitation of the farmer may 

 have advanced in elegance antl accommodation a hundred 

 fold ; but the cottager still lives in the same simple kind of 

 fabric as his ancestor did in the most remote ages of civiliza- 

 tion. A cottage built of stone and turf, or more generally of 

 stone and clay, commonly consists, like the ancient farm- 

 house, of two apartments divided by the furniture. In each of 

 these there is a fire-place and a window. The fire is still 

 without a grate ; but the window has two, and in some cases 

 four, panes of glass. The house may be about thirty feet in 

 length, and twelve feet (seldom more) in breadth, in the in - 

 side. The walls never exceed six feet in height ; and the roof 

 is covered first with thin sods, and next with thatch, carefully 

 renewed from time to time, and tied firmly on with straw 

 rojies. The whole has much the appearance of a low hay-sow. 

 Every cottager has a little garden or kail-yard. And many 

 of them bestow much care, and show no little taste in its cul- 

 tivation. Besides raising ditlerent kinds of coleworts, cab- 

 bages, onions, carrots, &c. for the pot, they frequentiy have rows 

 of gooseberry and, currant bushes, together with roses and 

 other flowering shrubs. Some of them decorate the walls of 

 their houses with honeysuckles, or with ivy ; and in some in- 

 stances with cherry and ajiple trees. 



The furniture of a Meains cottage consists, in general, of 

 two close wowlen beds, which are so arranged as to make a 

 se]>aration between two apartments; one or two wooden 

 chests for holding clothes ; a cask for holding meal ; a set of 

 dairy utensils ; an iron jiot or two for cooking the victuals ; a 

 girdle, or heating iron, for toasting the bread ; and a few 

 dishes, some of wood and some of stoneware. Two or three 

 chairs or stools, and a press or cupboard for holding the crock- 

 ery ware, and the bread, the cheese, the butter, aiid, at times, 

 the whiskey bottle. A tea equipage, on a small scale, has also 

 of late become an indispensable article of cottage furniture ; 



for tea drinking has now found its way every where. It seems 

 to be a gentle sjiecies of ebriety , which sets the imagination and 

 the tongue at work, without incurring the imputation of 

 drunkenness, or breaking any one precept, human or divine. 

 Wlierever it is once introduced, it keeps its ground as certainly 

 as snuff' or tobacco, and becomes nearly as inveterate a habit ; 

 but happily it serves as sm article of food, at the same time that 

 it is a luxurious gratification. The value of a cottage furni- 

 ture may be estimated at from ten to twenty pounds. 

 - The cottagers are moderate and plain in their food ; but they 

 are not so in their clothing. Hardly any thing but English 

 manufacture will, serve them. At kirk and at market, it is 

 difficult to distinguish the man from the master, and still more 

 so, the maid servant from her mistress. Either the one or the 

 other have seldom less than five pounds worth of clothes, and 

 often twice that value, on their back at onc^. 



The jtitfo^e of Laurence-kirk was founded by the late Lord 

 Gardenstone, about 1760, and in 1781 he procured a charter 

 by which it was declared a burgh of barony. "There is 

 an excellent inn here, with a library and museum for the 

 use of the traveller. There is a manufactory of sycamore 

 snuff -boxes ; and the lands inj the neighborhood have been 

 raised in value from ten shillings to three and four pounds per 

 acre. 



3. Occupation. 



Arable farms of various sizes : many small ; some 400 or ."iOO 

 acres. Hill pastures let in tracts by the thousand acres. One 

 farm occupies 30,000 acres. Leases formerly let on periods ol 

 two, three, and four times nineteen years, with sometimes a 

 life-rent after ; of late the term seldom exceeds nineteen or 

 twenty-one years, unless when great improvements are ex- 

 pected to be made by the tenants. The arable land is culti- 

 vated under judicious rotations, in which either tumijis or 

 fallow enters, according as the soil is light or clayey. The 

 mountains are devoted to the breeding of cattle. There are 

 few or no public gardens or orchards, but great extent of voung 

 l)lanUtions, and some patches of native birch and hazel cop- 

 pice. The cattle are a small, hardy, kindly feeding breed. 

 Horses of the Clydesdale variety are reared by many farmers, 

 and most kinds of improved stock have been tried. Bees are 

 generally kept. There is a good deal of sea fishing, and some 

 valuable salmon fisheries; but excejrting roi>es, nets, canvass, 

 &c. there are no manufactories of any consequence. 



7066. ABERDEENSHIRE. 1,270,744 acres, one-sixteenth of Scotland, and one-fiftieth of the area of 

 Great Britain. The surface for the greater part not very irregular, but hilly and mountainous in the dis- 

 trict adjoining Inverness-shire : the soil in general clayey and moory ; the climate milder in winter 

 than that of Middlesex, owing to the circumambient sea, but the summers short and cold ; the agricul- 

 ture assiduously pursued, and the products chiefly corn and cattle ; great part planted with trees. The 

 report of the county is more than usually intelligent, and contains two preliminary .sections, on the lessons 

 which other counties may derive from Aberdeenshire, and on the improvements which this county may 

 derive from others. Aberdeen exhibits a successful example of spade and plough culture combined, in the 

 small holdings of tradesmen, mechanics, cow-keepers and gardeners : ana may profit from other countieft 



