1192 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV, 



the Farmer') SSagaxine, Ydlow turnips very much sown, jmd 

 generally preferred by the cow-keepers. Rtita bkga in great 

 lepu'e; but requires to be earlier sown than the yellow, and, 

 consequently, does not admit of so thoronghly cleaning the 

 (pround. Carrot, beet, scorzonera, and other roots, fermented 

 and distilled by the rej)orter, the best spirit and greatest quan- 

 tity from carrot. White beet grown, but fowna to yield less 

 produce than turnip, carrot, or cabbage. 



8. Gardens and Orchards. 



The coonty of Aberdeen is distinguished beyond any other 

 county in the island, for the preparatory branch of all good 

 gardening,, vii. trenching the toil <o a proper depth. We have 

 a numerous ciass of gardeners in the vicinity of Aberdeen, who 

 cultivate the lands in the neighbourhood of that city, and 

 whose preictice deserves to be generally known, and generally 

 imitated. They, in fact, are kitchen gardeners, seedsmen, and 

 irurserymen. Tliey raise all sorts of roots for the inhabitants of 

 the cities of New and CHd Aberdeen, various seeds for tbe use 

 of the country at Jarge, and nurseries so extensive, and so care- 

 fully managed, that, besides ser-ing the landed proprietors in 

 the county, and the owners of villas near the towns, they export 

 considerable numbers of plants to England. 



A few good private orchards j the largest that of Ferguson 

 ef I'itfour, of ten acres. The site of it, nearly 601) years ago, 

 contained the Abfcev of Deer, founded in I'ZlS, and the garden 

 belonging to the monastery. It is a striking proof of the lux- 

 ury of the Romish clergy, and of their uncommon skill in the 

 raising of fruit-trees, that when Ferguson was laying out his 

 new orchard, he found in the abbey garden, first, rich soil 

 above three feet deep; secondly, a well-paved causeway of 

 granite ; thirdly, a bed of pure s'and, one foot deep ; fourthly, 

 another causeway of greuiite ; 2Uid below the whole, a consider- 

 able depth rf rich mould. No greater precaution could have 

 l)een taken to hinder the roots of tlie fruit-trees from being in- 

 jured, hi' piercing into a cold or wet subsoil. 



y. Woods and Plantations. 



In the higher division of Mar, occupy nearly lOO sqiiare 

 jiles,hi sovae places very thickly planted, and m others raised 

 by nature, at very ditf'erent disteinces between the trees. Nearly 

 one third has been both enclosed and planted ; one third ha-, 

 been raised by nature, without either enclosing or planting the 

 ground; and the remainder has been surrounded by fences 

 for keeping out the cattle, and then been stocked with wood, 

 raised trom seed, either blown by the wind, or carried by the 

 rooks, who, by some instinctive impulse, carry the cones of the 

 Scotch pine in their bills, to provide habitations for their ott- 

 pring, at a remote period ; when the seeds contained in these 

 eones become trees, in which they may build thtir nests. This 

 supposed instinct in the rooks is more probably called forth 

 with a view to a firm surface to break the cones on; and on 

 such an open surfitce, also, the cones are sooner opened by the 

 heat of the sun, which enables tlie rooks to find the seeds with- 

 out labour. In these higher districts, wood grows so easily, 

 thnt the predictor need only enclose an extent of hiJIy ground, 

 and thus shut out the cattle. The wind and the crows will, in 

 time, supply him with sesds. But when these natural woods 

 grow very irregularly^ it is found prudent to assist nature, by 

 sowing, or accasiraially scratching into the soil, a number of 

 seeds of the trees which are wished to be reared in the vacant 

 spaces. The greater proportion of these woods consists of 

 Scotch pine; it grows slowly at first, but is very valuable. 

 Where the soil is most barren, and the trees grow very slowly, 

 he wood of the Scotch pine is of the best quality. A remark- 

 able tree, at Invercauld, was cut down about forty years ago ; 



7853. NAIRNSHIRE and MORAYSHIRE, forming together 512,000 acres of moantainous surface, 

 and some narrow arable vales, are included in one survey. The climate along the Moray Frith has always 

 been noted for its mildness, which is partly owing to its localities, and partly to the general prevalence of a 

 drv sandy soil On the mountains the climate is more severe. Lead, iron, lime, marl, freestone, slate, &c. 

 are found, but the first two are not worked at all, and of the others, only the freestone, to any extent. 

 (Leslie's General View, 1810.) 



and the numbe* of concentric cird^s near its root, viz. 25^9^. 

 showed it to have grown and increased in size for 229 years, 

 besides the time that it continued stationary. Its wood was 

 declared, by all who saw it, to be much superior in gua.ity to 

 any that had ever been imported from the north of Europe. 

 There are thousands of pine trees in Braemar, some of w hich 

 are nearly six feet in diameter, which are superior, in point of 

 quahty, to any wood of that denomination that was ever im- 

 ported into any place in Great Britain. 



10. Improvejnents. 



Trenching has been already mentioned : within three miles 

 of Aberdeen, above 5000 acres trenched ; some acres paid 0i. 

 per acre for granite bowlders for exportation. Practice of 

 trenching very general throughout the county. 



Irrij^ation adopted on po<- iron-stone clay, not worth tw 

 shillings per acre, but reused in value to two pounds. Tlie ope- 

 rator brought from G-loucester, by Ferguson ef Pitfour. 



11. Live Stock. 



More cattle bred than in any other county. Scotch cattle 

 first improved by crossing some English cows sent down by 

 Henry VII. to his eldest daughter, queen of James IV. The 

 produce was known as the Falkland breed. Williamson's three 

 brothers sell annually about 8000 head of cattle of various 

 breeds, in the south-oountry markets. They decidedly prefer 

 the true native, unmixed, and raised by good keeping, t the 

 mixture of the Falkland, or Fifeshire breed, with that of this 

 county ; and consider both these to be murfi superior to the 

 English, or to any foreign breeds. They justly remark, that 

 the food, or keep, should be ahvays above the breed, and not 

 the breed above the keep. They consider the small highland 

 cattle, which are generalW bought by inferior dealers, as too 

 restless and impatient for feeding well. They prefer the native 

 low country breed to the larger ones, as they are most easily 

 maintained, more hardy in work, have flesh of the finest grain, 

 and pay better in proportion to the goodness of their keep. 

 Every succeeding generation, for the last thirty years, heis in- 

 creased in size, and that by good keeping ; the native breed is 

 double its former size (f . e. weighs at least double its former 

 weight) since tjie introduction of the turnip husbandry. They 

 are also decidedly of opinion, that wherever a landed proprietor 

 breeds more than one year for family use, the stot should not 

 be tied up, but allowed to feed loose, in order to get gentle ex- 

 ercise along with his food ; that the second year he may be put 

 to high feeding, and be tied up, and may be continued withi 

 this high feeding as long as he seems to thrive; but that he 

 ought to be killed whenever he loaths his food, or appears to 

 be sickly, or not thpving. 



The sheep few, and of a mixed breed. Horses are native 

 ponies, or purchased from Clydesdale. Poultry very common ; 

 great demand for eggs, both for the Aberdeen and London 

 markets. Red deer in great numbers in Braemar, and roes on 

 the hills of Cromar. 



12. Manvfactwes. 



County long celebrated for its woollen manufactures. About 

 1660, Garden of Gilconeston, a wealthy sheep farmer and ma- 

 nufacturer, had a daughter, who married Lieutenant Cadogai 

 of Cromwell's army, who afterwards was made a peer, and 

 from whom sprang the Duke rf Richmond, Earl of Leicester, 

 Lords Cadogan, Vemey, Holland, C. J. Fox, and the heads of 

 other eminent English families- 



Woollen, linen, and cotton, now extensively manufactured. 

 Knitting of stockings and spinning lint formerlv common, but 

 little attended to since the introduction of machinery. 



1. Property. 

 In very large estates ; as, for example, those of the Duke of 



Gordon, and Earkof Findlater, ?,^oray, Fife, and Lord Cawdor. 



2. Buildings. 

 Considerable as lias been the alterations in tlie houses of 



proprie: ors, it is nothing to that which has taken place in those 

 of farmers. Prior to the year 1760, in the dwellings of tenants 

 there were neither floors, ceilings, nor chimneys. In a few of 

 them, the low wall was radtly raised of stone, and clay mor- 

 tir, and had a small glass window ; in one only of the apart- 

 ments was any plaster, and it was raked over the walls in the 

 most artless manner; a loft, on which the rocrf" re^ed without 

 any side wall, distinguished a very few of the most respectable 

 habitations. There was in general but one fire (which served 

 all domestic occasions) in the apartment, where the servants 

 and master, with his wife and maiden daughters, lived and fed 

 together. In the higher parts of the district, matters were 

 much worse. Now, upon every fHrra of any consideration, the 

 buildings are substantial, commodious, and neat. 



3. Occupation. 

 As in Kincardineshire ; but the arable lands being generally 



light, the turnip husbandry is more prevalent. It is a singular 

 fact, that in an island in a lake, Loughnadurb, in this county, 

 the turnip is found more plentifiilly in a wild state than any 

 where else i>i Britain. This island contains a fortress, and the 

 reporter conjectures that turnips being introduced at an early 

 period from the Continent, the small plot of ground within the 

 walls could not be occupied by any crop more convenient for 

 its temporary inhabitants than that of turnips and coleworts. 

 It may be conjectured that the last crop, probably sown from 

 500 to 400 years ago, had never been gathered. Until of late 

 the turnips" in this island sprung up annually in a thick bed, 



7854. The shires of ROSS, NAIRN, and CROMARTY are three adjoining mountainous districts, con- 

 taining 2,204,800 acres. The soil is in general light, sandy, or peaty. Minerals of various kinds have been 

 found, but only building-stones and lime are worked. {Mackenzie's General new, 1810.) 



apic 

 em counties, previously to the rebellion in the year 1745, can be 

 derived; 



without cnlture. The root, in some fevoured situations, it i 

 said, had been found of one pound weight; but they resembl* 

 in general the wild kind, havmg a long root like a small radish, 

 of acid juice, and a rough pointed leaf. Some plants of red 

 cabbage were also distinguished among them. Both were used 

 as pot-herbs at the tables of the coumry people, on which ac 

 count they were sometimes raised in tht>ir gardens. When 

 they began to run to seed on this island, young cattle were fer- 

 ried in to feed on them. The Rev. Francis Forbes, minister of 

 Grange, has seen rentals of the family of Crp.igy var, from which 

 it appears that turnips were paid as an article of rent in the end 

 of the seventeenth century. The quantity (about 200 bushels) 

 shows that they must have been applied as food for cattle. By 

 the famine which unfortunately took place at that period, how- 

 ever, every agricultural branch of industry was so deranged, 

 that this important object, instead of being extended, was, even 

 there, wholly abandoned. 



The cultivation of turnips, as a food for cattle, was first in. 

 troduced into this district, from the county of Norfolk, by the 

 late Earl of Findlater, about the year 1760. 



When the artificial glasses and herbage plants were intro- 

 duced, only regtilar gardeners were employed to sow them ; 

 now common country operatives perform the operation. Few 

 orchards ; apples imported from England ; a few natural 

 woods, and extensive artificial plantations. In general it may 

 be observed, that in this, as in the other counties of the north, 

 every description of improvement has been tried, and such a$ 

 are found to answer, as draining, burning, irrigation, planting, 

 road-making, &c. carried to a great extent. All the improved 

 implements have been tried, and the reptarter even proposes an 

 addition to them, in the form of circular harrows; the circle of 

 cast iron, and the tines of wrought iron, screwed in or fastened 

 with nuts and screws. {See. fig. 7787.) There is a good deal of 

 fishing carried on along the coast, and in the Moray Frith. 



1. Property. 



Is in few hands, and till of late underwent but few changes. 

 There are no sources of information from wluch a precise 



knowledge of the state of apiculture in these and other north. 

 ies, previously to th 

 but from what it has been since that time, until about 



