< 62 ) 



ment in respect to cropping, and other conditions 

 of aorricultural mana^-ement, which at one time was 

 most properly imposed upon the tenants, and was in 

 the hio-hest degree needed by their condition and 

 habits. In all modern leases there are certain stipula- 

 tions binding the tenant to observe the rules of ''good 

 husbandry," and very often these rules are specified 

 with great minuteness. Their one and only object is 

 to prevent waste and the deterioration of the soil. A t 

 a time when small tenants were only just rising out 

 of the wretched ''run-rig" system, and when the 

 very elements of good husbandry in the rotation of 

 crops were unknown to them, it was an absolute 

 necessity that the tenants should be bound to culti- 

 vate according to the rules laid down for them by 

 those who managed the estate. -Neither thirty years 

 ao-o, nor at the present moment, can some rules in 

 regard to cropping be dispensed with, — especially in 

 Tyree, where, in addition to all the usual evils of bad 

 management, there is the special and additional 

 danger arising from "sand-blowing." I have very 

 little doubt that the paper referred to by the crofters 

 and of which they have given so apocryphal an 

 account, was a paper of conditions relative to this 

 subject — if, indeed, it ever existed at all. 

 Groundlessness of I am almost ashamed to notice one of the com- 

 complaint about ^i^[^^^ brought before the Commission in Tyree, it is 



drying seaweed ou ^ ° • • i • n 



crofts. so unreasonable ; but I do notice it chieliy on account 



of a remark which it elicited from one of your Lord- 

 ship's colleagues. I refer to the complaint of a 

 crofter that the Seaweed Company used his croft 

 for the purpose of drying seaweed upon it. The 

 ' slightest cross-examination on the subject of this 



