Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF SUTHERLAND. 



1149 



habitations. There was, in general, but one lire (which 

 served all domesti<: occasions) in the apartment, where the ser- 

 vants and master, with his wife and maiden daughters, lived 

 and fed together. In the higher parts of the district matters 

 were much worse. Now upon every farm of any consider- 

 ation, the buildings are substantial, commodious, and neat. 



3. Occupation, 



As in Kincardineshire ; but the arable lands being gene- 

 rally light, the turnip husbandry is more prevalent. It; is a 

 singular fact, that in an island in a lake, Loughnadurb, in this 

 county, the turnip Ls found more plentifully in a wild state 

 than any where else in Britain. This island contains a for- 

 tress, and the reporter conjectures that turnips being intro- 

 duced at an early period from the continent, the small plot of 

 ground within the walls could not Ije occupied by any crop 

 more convenient for its temporary inhabitants, than that of 

 turnips and coleworts. It may be conjectured that the last 

 crop, probably sown from 30U to 400 years ago, had never 

 been gathered. Until of late the turnips in this island sprung 

 up annually in a thick bed, without culture. The root, in 

 some favored situations, it is said, had been found of one pound 

 weight, but they resemble in general the wild kind, having a 

 long root, like a small radish, of acid juice, and a rough 

 pointed leaf. Some plants of red cabbage were also distin- 

 guished among them. Both were used as pot herbs at the 

 tables of the country peojJe, on which account they were some- 

 times raised in their gardens. When they began to run to 



them. The Rev. Francis Forbes, minister of Grange, has 

 seen rentals of the family of Craigyvar, from which it appears 

 that turnips were paid as an article of rent, in the end of the 

 seventeenth century. The quantity (about SiOO bushels) shows 

 that they must have been applied as food for cattle. By the 

 famine which unfortunately took place at that period, how* 

 ever, every agricultural branch of industry was so deranged, 

 that this important object, instead of being extended, was, 

 even there, wholly abandoned. 



The cultivation of turnips, as a food for cattle, was first in- 

 troduced into this district, from the county of Norfolk, by the 

 late Earl of Findlater, about the year 1760. 



When the artificial grasses and herbage plants were intro- 

 duced, only regular gardeners were employed to sow them ; 

 now common coxmtry operatives perform the oj^ration. Few- 

 orchards ; apples imported from England; a few natural 

 woods, and extensive artificial plantations. In general it may 

 be observed that in this as in the other counties of the North, 

 every description of improvement has been tried, and such as 

 are found to answer, as draining, burning, irrigation, planting, 

 road making, &c. carried to a great extent. All the im- 

 proved implements have been tried, and the reporter even pro- 

 poses an addition to them, in the form of circular harrows ; 

 the circle of cast irony and the tines of wrought iron, screwed 

 in or fastened with nuts and screws. (See,fig. 776.) There is a 

 good deal of fishing carried oh along the doast and in the Moray- 

 Frith. 



7068. The shires of ROSS, NAIRN, and CROMARTY, are three adjoining mountainous di.stricts, con- 

 taining 2,204,800 acres. The soil is in general light, sandy, or peaty. Minerals of various kinds have 

 been found, but only building stones and lime are worked. (Mackenzie's General View, 1810.) 



1. Property. ' landlord apees that the repairs shall be madelat the mutual 



Is in few hands, and till of late underwent but few changes, i expense of himself and his tenant, the latter will thrive, and 

 ,-a ^n <,...-,<> f i.^fXr.T.o:nn fi-rv. .ti,!,.!, , praise i the former will never have to demand his rent twice. The 



' present race of Highland tenants will yet find themselves much 

 happier, and more comfortable, in the capacity of servants to 

 substantial tenants, than in their present situation. The 

 dwellings of cottagers are not worse than those of the native 

 farmers. The same roof covers men, women, children, cattle, 

 dogs, pigs, poultry, &c. It must afford great pleasure to every 

 lover of his country, to observe the neat cottages that are erect- 

 ing in every part of the country ; but it will be long ere the 

 people will learn the comforts of cleanliness and the use of 

 chimnies. In many places where these have been constructed, 

 the people do not use them, but prefer breaking a hole in the 

 roof of the house, and lighting their fire on the floor. Smoke 

 they say keeps them warm. 



The occupation and management of land is the same as in 

 other mountain districts. Some grain, chiefly oats, is raised 

 in the low grounds, with root and herbage crops, and the pas- 

 tures are devoted to the breeding of cattle and sheep. Every 

 improvement is tried by the principal proprietors; and enlight- 

 ened farmers from the south of Scotland, accustomed to breed- 

 ing, induced to settle on their estates, by long leases and mode- 

 rate rents. From these the smaller native formers take an ex- 

 ample sooner than they would from the operations of i)ropri- 

 etors, which they are apt to consider, as at least of dubious 

 value. When a rent-paying farmer, however, adopts plans 

 new to them, the case is very different. Of woods in this dis- 

 trict there are very few, but many plantations have been lately 

 made round gentlemen's seats, especially Lord Seaforth's. 



The great post roads in this district have been made in part 

 by Government, and in part by the proprietors. There is a 

 cotton manufactory at Cromarty, and the reporter suggests the 

 idea of manufacturing tar, from the trunks of fir trees found 

 bedded in all the mosses of this and other Highland districts. 



There are no sources of information from which 

 knowledge of the state of agriculture in these and" other 

 northern counties, previous to the rebellion in the year 1745, | 

 can be derived; but from what it has been since that time, 

 until about 1760, it may safely be concluded, that agricultural ! 

 knowledge was neither sought for nor desired. The mode of 

 management which has been practised in these counties, and ! 

 in other parts of the Highlands, and which has been handed j 

 down from father to son for many generations, is still to be 

 found in the midst of the most improved districts. We still ' 

 see the arable land divided into small crofts, and many of the < 

 hills occupied as commons. On 'the west coast, particularly, 

 the ground is seen covered with heaps of stones, and large ' 

 quantities are collected on the divisions between the fields, so 

 that a considerable portion of the land capable of cultivation, 

 is thus rendered useless, by the indulgence of the most unpar- ' 

 donable sloth. The management of the native farmers is most 

 destructive. The soil of one field is dug away to be laid upon 

 another ; and crop succeeds crop, until the land refuses to yield 

 eny thing. It is then allowed to rest for a season, and the 

 weeds get time to multiply. Such, we must suppose, was the 

 system of farming before the rebellion ; we cannot imagine it 

 to have been worse. 



2. Buildings. 



The old Highland tenantry are universally ill accommo- 

 dated. They live in the midst of filth and smoke ; that is 

 their choice. But wherever farms have been laid out on a 

 proper scale, and are occupied by substantial and well edu- 

 cated men, we find the farm-houses and offices handsome and 

 commodious. Every proprietor who wishes to see his estate 

 rapidly improved, will erect suitable buildings at his own ex- 

 pense, before he invites a good tenant to settle upon it. The 

 interestof his money will be always cheerfully paia, and if the 



' 7069. CAITHNESS. 395,680 acres, three-eighths of which is deep, mossy, and flat moors, covered with 

 heath ; three-eighths mountain, moor, and some hilly pasture, and the remainder in cultivable land, lakes, 

 &c. There is very little wood, either natural or artificial : but excellent lime and freestone. On the 

 whole it is one of the coldest, wettest, and most dreary counties of Scotland ; and is in no way remark- 

 able, unless for being the scene of Sir John Sinclair's practical attempts at improvement. Of these the 

 chief seems to have been the enlargement of the town of Thurso : of which, and of various other schemes, 

 ample information is given in the report, and in a number of appendixes to it by Sir John himself. {Hen- 

 derson's General View, 1812.) 



The principal farmers in the county under review, are in- 

 telligent gentlemen, who have been for some time in the 

 army, or followed other avocations, either in the southern 

 counties of Scotland, or in England, who work their farms 

 upon the principles of modem agriculture, as practised in the 

 southern counties of Scotland, as far as the state of the county, 

 as to climate, roads, the means of improvement, markets, &c. 

 will admit, but at a much greater expense than is done to 

 the southward, and of course much less benefit to themselves. 

 In general, they have ether sources of income, which enable 

 them to live in a social and comfortable state in society : they 

 are better educated than farmers paying a similar rent in Eng- 

 land; agricultural knowledge, therefore, is soon inculcated 

 amongst them. 



The smaller class of fanners, with but few excejiUons, are 

 industrious, sober, sagacious, and moral in their behaviour. 

 They have, unfortunately, a turn for litigation, and exivend 

 more money than they ought to do in law, by which their cir. 

 cumstances are often injured. 



1. Property, 



Is in few hands, and the Irish practice of tacksmen tenants 

 exists, and has existed from time immemorial in the county. 

 These tacksmen, as they are called, generally occupy a part 

 of the land themselves, and sublet the remainder to the small 

 farmers, for a certain money-rent, payments in grain, cus- 

 toms, and service (the latter in many cases unlimited), so as 

 to have, upon the whole, a surplus rent for the trouble and 

 risk of recovering their rack-rents from the sub-tenants. 



A few young men from the south of Scotland have been 

 brought to this county, to superintend the nroprietor's farms 

 or domains, for the pur|)ose of introducing the i>ractice of mo- 

 dem husbandry : these, from time to time, have taken farms 

 in this county ; but whether their agricultural skill was super- 

 ficial, or that they did not understand the mode of farming 

 best adapted to this cold and moist climate, they have neither 

 increased the crops, nor improved the landlord's farms placed 

 under their direction ; nor has their industry or skill produced 

 better crops on their own farms, than what is raised by a similar 

 class of the county farmers, who have never been out of it. 



7070. SUTHERLAND. 1,872,000 acres, chiefly of mountain and moor ; and a climate about a fortnight 

 later than that of Edinburgh. The greater part of the county is the property of the Marquess of Stafford, 

 whose astonishing, masterly, and successful improvements, have been amply detailed in Loch's work, 

 from which we derived so much information for Staffordshire and Shropshire, and to which we again recur. 

 (Henderson's General View, S(c. Loch's Improvements of the Marquess of Stafford, %c. 1819.) 



The estates of Sutherland have only lately undergone that 

 change which began to operate in England as far back as the 



reign of Henry VII. This change had for its object the crea- 

 tion of a middle class by the dejiression of the barons, and the 

 raising up of the next class of the community. This object 



was gradually and successfully accomplished in England by the 

 time of Queen Elizabeth, and in the south of Scotland soon 

 after the union of the two kingdoms : but the Highlands, or 



most northerly counties, underwent no change till the discom- 

 fiture of the Pretender, and the abolition of tiie heritable juris- 

 dictions then existing in the north, in 1747. This invaluable 

 act having brought the Highland chieftains within the pale of 

 the law, and placed them on the same footing as the other 

 gentlemen.of the land, they began rapidly to acquire the same 

 tastes, to be occupied with the same pur'suts, to feel the same 

 desires, and to liave the same]wants as their brethren in the 



