HARRIS. AGRICULTURE. 159 



lately most prevalent in the Highlands, and formerly 

 mentioned by the name of run-rig. To a stranger, the 

 mode of cultivation in use in these rocky districts presents 

 a very singular aspect, in the sinuous ridges and minute 

 patches occupied by corn or potatoes, which grow upon 

 artificial beds heaped on the naked surfaces of the rock. 

 By this almost Chinese system the shallow soils found on 

 the rocky substratum are rendered productive ; the ac- 

 cumulation of the beds increasing the earth to the neces- 

 sary depth ; while the intervals between them, produced 

 by the removal of the required portion, become the drains, 

 which in a climate so moist and in soils of such a com- 

 position, are the first steps towards cultivation. As far 

 as this system is faulty, it is here only so on account of that 

 waste and misdirection of industry already noticed in the 

 remarks which have preceded : if it is right that such 

 land should be cultivated, no better plan could be devised. 

 But it is extended also to cases where it is by no means 

 the best system that might be adopted, and where, on the 

 contrary, the same quantity of industry bestowed in a 

 different manner would produce more effectual and more 

 permanent improvements. I allude to the very common 

 practice of constructing similar beds on peat mosses 

 where there is a great depth of soil. By this practice a 

 certain extent of surface is brought into cultivation by 

 a method of drainage which is laborious while it is neither 

 permanent nor extensive ; it being obvious that the same 

 quantity of spade-work applied to the construction of 

 well-directed and deep drains, would unwater the whole 

 space, whereas, in this practice, no portion is drained 

 but that heap which has with much toil been thrown up 

 on the surface. 



In Harris, as throughout these islands, the best soil 

 and consequently the greenest pastures, are found on 

 the sea-shores. In consequence of the vicinity of the sea 

 being unfavourable to the formation of peat, the soil in 

 these places, instead of being encumbered, as in the interior, 



