Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF ABERDEENSHIRE. 



1191 



comparison, not only of the who'.enomeness of oatmeal In 

 promoting health, but of its pout r in supplying labour. 



All families that have a house of their own use tea and 

 wheaten bread ; hut among cottagers this is a rare and always 

 a ceremonious entertainment, at christenings and otht-r solemn 

 occasions. 



Several apricultur.il societies: the first founded by Dempster 

 of Dunnichen, an eminent improver. An account of the na- 

 tive plants and animals of the county by Don, the celebrated 

 Scotch botanist, who resided at Forfar, possesses great interest 

 for the naturalist. Indeed the whole survey ranks, in this re- 

 spect, with that of Farey of Derbyshire. 



more frequent in some of these districts than the., are here, 

 ulure they are seldom or never heard of. The latter ought 

 rather to he ascribed to dirty 1 men or clothing, than to oat- 

 meal, or any particular species of food. Oatmeal, when it is 

 sufficiently diluted with any sort of liquid, is known to be a 

 laxative aperient, wholesome, and at the same time a 

 strengthening food for those engaged in hard lahour. Engi- 

 neers, who superintend the excavation of canals, have assured 

 the reporter, that those labourers who lived entirely upon oat- 

 meal and milk did a third more work than those who used 

 butcher's meat, beer, and spirits. All of the former saved 

 money, while many of the latter involved themselves in debt. 

 As this sort of work is done by the piece, it affords a fair 



7851. KINCARDINESHIRE or MEARNS. 243,444 acres, chiefly of mountain, but containing about 

 one third of culturable surface. The climate is severe and hilly. The soil is gravelly, mossy, or clayey, 

 and scarcely any where naturally fertile. The only minerals are lime, found in a few parts, and granite, 

 whin, and freestone. Improvements commenced in this county about the middle of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, and have since been carried on with great spirit. {Robertson's General View, 1795.) 



1. Property. 

 In few hands : largest estate 40,715 acres, the rest in eighty 



or ninetv estates. 



2. Buildings. 



Some old farm houses still remain, built of stone and turf, 



and in all respects wretched ; but as leases are renewed, new 

 farmeries are er. i ted on the most improved plans, with com- 

 modious dwelling-houses. So much cannot be said of the 

 cottages, which have undergone very little alt '.-ration in struc- 

 ture, for a long space of time. The habitation of the farmer 

 may have advanced in elegance and accommodation a hundred 

 fold; but the cottigir still lives in the same simple kind of 

 fabric as his ancestor did in the most remote ages of civilis 

 ation. A cottage built of stone and turf, or more generally of 

 stone and clay, commonly consists, like the ancient farm- 

 house, <>f two ipirtments divided by the furniture. In each 

 of these there is a fire-place and a window. The fire is still 

 v. ithout a grate ; but the window has two, and in -,ome cases 

 four, panes of glass. The house may be about thirty feet in 

 length, and twtlve feet (seldom more) in breadth, in the in- 

 side. The walls never exceed six feet in height ; and the roof 

 is covered first with thin sods, and next with thatch, carefully 

 renewed from time to time, and tied firmly on with straw 

 ropes. The whole has much the appearance of a low hay-sow. 

 Every cottager has a little garden or kail-yard ; and many 

 of them bestow much care, and show no little taste, in its cul- 

 tivation. Besides raising different kinds of coleworts, cab- 

 bages, onions, carrots, etc., for the pot, they frequently have 

 rows of gooseberry and currant bushes, together with roses and 

 other flowering shrubs. Some of them decorate the walls of 

 their houses with honeysuckles, or with ivy; and in some in- 

 stances with cherry and apple trees. 



The furniture of a Mearns cottage consists, in general, of 

 two close wooden l>eds, which are so arranged as to nnke a 

 separat on between two apartments ; one or two wooden 

 chests for holding clothes ; a cask for holding meal ; a set of 

 dairy utensils; an iron pot or two for cooking the victuals ; a 

 girdle, or heating iron, for toasting the bread ; and a few 

 dishes, some of wood and some of stone ware Two or three 

 chairs or stools, and a a press or cupboard for holding the 

 crockery ware, and the bread, the cheese, the butter, and, at 

 times, the whisky hottle. A tea equipage, on a small scale, 

 has also of late become an indispensable article of cottage fur- 



niture ; for tea- drinking has now found its way every wnere. 

 It seems to be gentle species of ebriety, which sets the imagin- 

 ation and the tongue at work, without incurring the imput- 

 ation of drunkenness, or breaking any one precept, human or 

 divine. Wherever it is once introduced, it keeps its ground as 

 certainly as snuff or tobacco, and becomes nearly as inveterate 

 a habit; but happily it serves as an article of food, at the same 

 time that it is a luxurious gratification. The value of the furni- 

 ture of a cottage may be estimated at from ten to twenty 

 pounds. 



The cottagers are moderate and plain in their food ; but they 

 are not so in their clothing. Hardly any thing but English 

 manufacture will serve them. At kirk and at market, it is 

 difficult to distinguish the man from the master, and still 

 more so, the mMd-servant from her mistress. Either the one 

 or the other have seldom less than rive pounds worth of clothes, 

 and oft- n twice that value, on their back at once. 



The village of I.aurence-kirk was founded by the late Lord 

 (rardenstone, ahout 17b"0, and in 1781 he procured a charter 

 by width it was declared a burgh of barony, There is an 

 excellent inn here, with a library and museum for the use 

 of the traveller. There is a manufactory of sycamore snuff- 

 boxes; and the lands in the neighbourhood have been raised in 

 value from ten shillings to three and four pounds per acre. 



3. Occupation. 



Arable farms of various sizes : many smalt ; some 400 or 500 

 acres. Hill pastures let in trad-, by the thousand acres. One 

 farm occupies 30,000 acres. Leases formerly let on periods of 

 two, three, and four times nineteen >ears, with sometimes a 

 life-rent after ; of late the term seldom exceeds nineteen or 

 twenty-one years, unless when great improvements are ex- 

 pected to be made by the tenants. The arable land is culti- 

 v.it -d under judicious rotations, in which either turnips or 

 fa' low enters, according as the soil is light or clayey. The 

 mountains are devoted to the breeding of cattle. There are 

 few or no public gardens or orchards, but great extent of young 

 plantations, and some patches of native birch and hazel cop- 

 pice- The cattle are a small, hardy, kindly feeding breed. 

 Horses of the Clydesdale variety are reared by many farmers, 

 and most kinds of improved stock have been tried. Bees arc 

 generally kept. There is a good deal of sea-fishing, and some 

 valuable- salmon fisheries; but excepting ropes, nets, canvass, 

 &c. there are no manufactures of any consequence. 



7852. ABERDEENSHIRE. 1,270,744 acres, one sixteenth of Scotland, and one fiftieth of the area of 

 Great Britain. The surface for the greater part not very irregular, hut hilly and mountainous in the dis- 

 trict adjoining Inverness-shire : the soil in general clayey and moory ; the climate milder in winter 

 than that of Middlesex, owing to the circumambient sea, but the summers short and cold: the agricul- 

 ture assiduously pursued, and the products chiefly corn and cattle ; — great part planted with trees. The 

 report of the county is more than usually intelligent, and contains two preliminary sections, on the lessons 

 which other counties may derive from Aberdeenshire, and on the improvements which this county may 

 derive from others. Aberdeen exhibits a successful example of spade and plough culture combined, in the 

 small holdings of tradesmen, mechanics, cow-keepers, and gardeners j and may profit from other counties 

 southwards, by greater attention to collecting manure, employing women and children in the lighter ope- 

 rations of husbandry, and limiting tenants to a certain number of subtenants. The celebrated Dr. James 

 Anderson farmed extensively in this county at Mounie, now the property of his eldest son, Alexander 

 Anderson Seaton, a distinguished horticulturist. (Keith's General View, 1811. Edin. Gaz. 1827. 1 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances, 



No metals or coal, and very little limes' one, but abundance 

 of excellent granite, which is used for every sort of building at 

 home, and expoited to London in great quantities. Besides 

 the durability, there is one other excellence attending the u>e 

 of this stone ; the expense of carving it has simplified the style 

 of architecture. The Braemar mountains abound with cairn- 

 gorms and other precious stones; some topazes and beryls 

 have been found, the latter of great value. 



2. Property. 



Much divided ; only two or three large estates. Lord Aber- 

 deen's the most valuable, consists of 50,000 arable acres, and 

 25,000 waste. 



3. Buildings. 

 A number of ruined castles and religious buildings, and a 



few handsome modern houses. An ample descriptive list of 

 gentlemen's seats, which are very numerous. Farm-houses, 

 formerly wretched structures of clay, turf, and thatch, are 

 now greatly improved; cottages improving. " Decent j&rm- 

 Itouses" first began to be thought of about 1760. In 1794, Dr. 

 Anderson observes in his report of the county on which the 

 present one is founded, that they are " for the most part very 

 poor. This is," he adds, " highly impolitic. Nothing contri- 

 butes more to the content and conveniency of a farmer, than 

 good and well disposed buildings. It elevates his mind ; gives 

 him spirit to pursue his operations with alacrity; and contri- 

 butes, in many instances, to augment his profits. I never yet 

 saw a thriving tenant who had not good houses. But on no 

 account should he be induced to expend that stock upon 

 building houses, which should be employed in extending his 

 own proper business. It ought always to be done by the land- 

 lord ; and, in general, a good set of bouses upon a farm, will 

 bring him much greater additional rent than the interest of 



4 G 



the money expended upon them Nothing will prove such an 

 allurement as good buildings, and long leases on equitable 

 terms." Since 17U4, when Dr. Anderson wrote the above para- 

 graph, we have got farmers from Berwickshire, Angus, Mearns, 

 and other southern districts, who have taken farms in Aber- 

 deenshire, and many of whom have shown excellent examples 

 in agriculture, as well as improved their own capital ; and the 

 native farmers of the county, in consequence of their example. 

 both in requiring good houses, and in raising good crops, are 

 now in a much more flourishing situation. 



4. Occupation. 

 The greatest diversity in the size of farms ; from six acres to 



thousands; scarcely a mechanic, journeyman, or master, h ho 

 has not a farm of one acre or two, or a garden ; besides the 

 produce, they find the labour highly conducive to health, by 

 counteracting the efi'ect of in-door confinement, and prolonged 

 unfavourable" bodily postures, or contaminating respiration. 



5. Implements. 

 Turnips formerlv sown from a small tin box, nine inches 



long, and one inch'square, v\ ith two or three holes at one end, 

 through which the operator shook out the seeds; thinned by 

 a part of the blade of an old sevthe fastened to a bit of iron like 

 a common hoe; the advantages of the latter are its sharpness, 

 but it is easily broken. A child's cradle rocked b\ water. 



6. Enclosures 

 Stone fences, or ditches and earthen banks, the common 



fences; this frees the land from loose stones, which abound 

 every where, or serves to drain it- 



7. Arable Laud. 



Potatoes, as well as various other improvements, first intro- 

 duced to field culture after the calamitous year 1782; not liked 



bv farmers so well as the turnip. The reporter tried 



experiments m distilling from potatoes, which are recorded in 



