( 6 ) 



peopled and subdivided, and which even to this day 

 contain some of the smallest crofts upon the island. 



The opinion of the reporters of 1 769 on the mini- 

 mum size of farm which it would be wise to assign to 

 one tenant or family is farther indicated by the re- 

 commendations they make that certain farms should 

 be more properly divided. Thus they recommend 

 that the three farms of Kenovar, Barrapol, and Balle- 

 menoch, which had then seventeen tenants, should not 

 in futnre be held by more than ten. It is curious 

 that these farms are now again held by the same 

 number of crofters which held them in 1769. But this 

 condition of things is the result of the gradual process 

 of re-consolidation which has been pursued during ths 

 last thirty years, the same farms having become at 

 one time so subdivided that there were no less than 

 twenty-nine tenants, instead of only ten as recom- 

 mended by the reporters of 1769. 

 Small tenants were The report of 1 769 is farther interesting as contain- 

 then destroying ^ conclusive evidence on the waste and misuse of 



their possessions ^ 



by cropping the land which the small tenants were then making. 



for pasture ^ ^" ^ Much of the soil of Tyree is almost pure shell sand, 

 which yields a rich and beautiful pasture, full of 

 clovers of several species ; but it is unfit for cropping, 

 and when broken up is very apt to become blowing 

 sand — not only sterile in itself, but liable to overrun 

 and render barren large areas of the surrounding land. 

 By this process two considerable farms have actually 

 been destroyed and lost — the whole area being now 

 as sterile as a snow-drift. The report of 1 769 shows 

 that the very poor and very ignorant tenants and sub- 

 tenants who were then in possession were cropping 

 this light sandy land to an injurious and dangerous 



