X 

 CARSE FARMING IN FORFAR 



IN our earlier visit to Scotland we had heard of Carse 

 farming as something out of the common, so we took 

 an opportunity after leaving Aberdeen of looking 

 over one of the large farms of this kind not far from 

 Dundee. 



The Carse of Cowrie and the Carse of Stirling is 

 very similar is a low alluvial flat which stretches 

 along the north side of the estuary of the Tay between 

 Perth and Dundee. It is all about 4oft. above tide 

 level and at its widest about three miles broad between 

 the Sidlaw Hills and the water's edge. For the 

 district it is heavy land, and as so often is the case 

 with alluvial flats heavier inland than by the water ; but 

 though described locally as a heavy clay the texture 

 is really that of a free-working loam, resembling very 

 closely on a cursory examination the brick earth one 

 finds on the maritime flat of Sussex. We could walk 

 about comfortably on the arable land within twenty- 

 four hours of a rainfall of over half an inch, and that 

 would never be possible on real clay land such as one 

 gets in Essex. The Carse farms are fairly large ; 

 most of them are described as four-pair farms, meaning 

 thereby that four pairs of horses are needed to work 

 them, and a pair of horses accounts for about 70 acres. 



As a rule they are rented, but a few are owned by 



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