MULL. AGRICULTURE. 543 



farming, and the alterations in the value of land which 

 have already been noticed on different occasions. Whe- 

 ther from a continued and progressive diminution of the 

 number of horses required in farming, or that from ancient 

 careless habits respecting the management, the supply is 

 still greater than the home demand, this island, like Sky, 

 now exports a few to the Irish market ; the purchasers 

 coming for them towards the end of summer in crazy 

 boats apparently but ill fitted for such a voyage. 



Mull, from the nature and disposition of its rocks, as 

 well as from the exposure of a great tract of its shores to 

 the boisterous action of the western sea, is not veiy pro- 

 ductive of kelp, but about 600 tons are supposed to be 

 manufactured annually. On this subject I have already 

 said all that can be interesting in a popular view, and 

 I need only add, that the quantity of labour employed 

 here by this manufacture, bears but a small proportion 

 to that which this island might furnish, with advan- 

 tage both to the wants and to the habits of the com- 

 munity. 



Of whatever immediate or ultimate improvement Mull 

 may be susceptible, little is to be expected until a 

 freer communication than exists at present, has been 

 effected by means of new roads. In this first of all agri- 

 cultural improvements it is lamentably deficient, scarcely 

 a mile throughout the whole island being passable for a 

 wheel carriage, if we except the short line from Achnacraig 

 to Arcs. The assistance formerly held out by the com- 

 missioners, and lately recalled after ample time had been 

 allowed to the proprietors of Highland estates to profit 

 by it, has been unaccountably neglected: but it is not 

 the business of a passing traveller to spy the nakedness 

 and record the provincial politics of those lands which, 

 with views far different from these, he has been led to 

 visit. 



