LATE HARVESTS 379 



serious trouble, and has disturbed the system of cropping 

 upon almost all the farms. 



We visited the farm of one of the famous Shorthorn 

 breeders, about 400 acres in extent, rather an excep- 

 tional size for the district, where a hundred-acre farm 

 is a common type, but otherwise showing no essential 

 difference in management. The land was farmed on a 

 typical Scotch seven-year rotation oats, oats, turnips, 

 barley, and seeds for three years, the duration of the 

 grass having been increased in order to keep off 

 finger-and-toe. The oats grown were chiefly Sandy 

 and other Scotch varieties, with some black Tartars ; 

 the modern varieties have not succeeded so well in 

 Aberdeenshire as they have farther north, the general 

 opinion being that they degenerate after a year or two 

 in that severe climate. The barley in the district was 

 nearly all " Scotch common," and wheat had disappeared 

 entirely. 



Harvest had not begun, indeed many of the late- 

 sown oat fields were still quite green ; very often 

 harvest lasts on into October, and it is no unusual 

 thing to see the stocks whitened over by a fall of snow 

 before they are finally housed. For this reason several 

 men were making trial of drying racks for their corn : 

 long wooden penthouses about 7 feet high, the shelves 

 formed of stout wire and just wide enough to take two 

 sheaves. The rack is set up on the crest of some 

 eminence to get all the wind, and packed with the 

 butts of the sheaves to the outside, so that the air can 

 circulate freely while the corn itself is almost wholly 

 protected from rain. Opinions varied as to their value ; 

 the capital cost is considerable, though one farmer 

 declared he had recovered his outlay in a single season. 

 Extra labour is required, though perhaps no more than 

 is spent on taking down and setting up again the 



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