( 35 ) 



amono- the cottao-es of the West Hio-hlands. It will 

 be observed that all the articles which Tyree pro- 

 duces, and on which the small tenants depend, are 

 articles in which there has been no depression of 

 prices, but on the contrary a great increase. Wheat 

 is not grown on the island, and wool is an article upon 

 which the crofting tenants do not largely depend in 

 Tyree. Barley, oats, and potatoes have maintained 

 fair average prices for many years, and there has been 

 an immense increase in the price of the class of cattle 

 on which the crofters principally depend. At no time 

 has the price been so high as during the last few seasons. 

 Tyree, therefore, cannot be said to have been exposed 

 to any one of the causes which have produced agri- 

 cultural depression in other parts of the kingdom. 

 The only special cause injuriously affecting the 

 crofters has been the occurrence of one or two wet 

 seasons, and the occurrence also of some great gales 

 of exceptional violence before the harvest had been 

 secured. 



This general conclusion as to the exemption of Exemption from 

 Tyree from the causes which have elsewhere produced ^f^^^ "^^ ^^'^^^" 

 agricultural depression, is a conclusion established by 

 the most conclusive of all proofs, and that is the 

 steady rise in the letting value of land. And this 

 rise has been tested by the simplest and fairest of ' 

 all tests — which is the price voluntarily and eagerly 

 offered for the hire of land by farmers of the capitalist 

 class biddino- for the larger farms which have been Consequent in- 

 open to competition. It is to be remembered that as ^^i^^^ ^f larger^ 

 regards this class of tenant, the doctrine lately laid far^s. 

 down by Sir James Caird'"' is absolutely and liter- 

 * In a recent letter to the Times. 



