CHAPTEE XLVIII. 



Crops Potato Slug Fern Slug Brackens: How thoroughly to extirpate them The 

 Merlin Falcon and Tringa. 



WE have had a full fortnight of magnificent summer weather 

 [August 1875], a bright sun over-head from morning till night, 

 with brisk breezes, a leanachd na greine, following the sun ; that is, 

 beginning in the morning at east, and gradually wearing round 

 pari passu with the solar march, till at sunset it is north-west, and 

 so on round and round the compass day after day, a phenomenon 

 usually attendant upon the very finest weather in our northern 

 latitudes. Under these circumstances it will not surprise those 

 who care for such matters to hear that our hay crop, about which 

 we were in such anxiety, has been secured in splendid condition, 

 in such condition, indeed, as we can rarely boast of in the West 

 Highlands. Our meadow hay crop, too, is this year unusually 

 heavy, and already, in obedience to the adage which teaches that 

 it is well and wise to make one's hay while the sun shines, we are 

 all busy getting it cut down and secured, although the old, orthodox 

 season is not yet for a fortnight to come about old Lammastide. 

 Oats with us here are generally a light crop, but it will as such be 

 easier to secure in good condition than a heavier crop would be, 

 and,* upon the whole, may thus turn out quite as profitable. 

 Potatoes are not so heavy haulmed as usual, but in other respects 

 they promise well, and there is no appearance of our old enemy the 

 " blight." We hear, however, a good deal of complaint in some 

 districts on account of the prevalence this year of yellow shaw, or 



