( r- ) 



when tried on the small scale common to old town- 

 ships in the Highlands ; and even when peace is kept 

 and quarrelling avoided, it is done only by the sacri- 

 fice of that spirit of individuality in enterprise and 

 improvement which is the life and soul of all in- 

 dustrial pursuits. The quality of the stock on such 

 joint possessions is generally and notoriously in- 

 Higlier mount.iiiis ferior. The higher mountains, therefore, of the 

 nuist be lield iii jjio-hlands must always continue to be held in 



large farms, but o -^ 



lower liills and comparatively large farms. But there is another 



arable land ^ £ ^|^^ Hio'hlands which consists of hills 



adapted lor small -'**^'-o'^ o 



farms. of smaller elevation, with a mixture of slopes and 



hollows of arable land, and sometimes with very con- 

 siderable stretches of level ground between them, which 

 has been reclaimed or is reclaimable. This is the area 

 most favourable for small farms, and the great bulk of 

 the whole area of the county of Argyll is actually so 

 held. On my own estates even the great mountain 

 pastures are all held in farms, the value of which is 

 small compared with the really large farms of the Low^- 

 iuustrations in lands of Scotland. In illustration of this fact let me 



farming divisions ^^^^^^ ^1^^ attention of the Commission to the farm- 



upon Duke s estate 



in Mull. ino- divisions upon my own estate in the Island of 



MulL That estate includes Ben More, one of the 



hio-her mountains of Scotland, and which, with all its 



spurs and outliers, is pure grazing land, with no more 



than mere fragments of arable soil at a few points 



around its base. Yet this great extent of mountain 



grazing is held in divisions, the very largest of which 



would represent a comparatively small farm in the 



Lothians and in many other parts of the Low Country. 



There is one farm of i^/OO ; another of ^600 ; a third 



of ;^394 ; a fourth oi £2\(^ \ a fifth of /"i 15. Pass- 



