390 CARSE FARMING IN FORFAR 



reeds cut from the salt marsh. Close in to Dundee 

 turnips and green meat are sold to the town dairymen. 



The fringe of salt marsh also added to the saleable 

 products of the farm : first of all comes a belt of the 

 usual tall feathery-headed reeds, the haunt of wildfowl 

 in the winter and frequented at the time of our visit 

 by enormous flocks of starlings feeding on the seed 

 in the waving purple tops. This is cut over once 

 a year for bedding in the byres and stables, and some 

 of it is put up into bundles for sale into the towns. 

 Beyond the reeds down to the edge of the pure mud 

 there is another belt of " salt grass," a kind of tall 

 carex, very tough and possessing a dangerous cutting 

 edge; this material, though not so tall as the reeds, 

 forms a better and more lasting thatch, and is sold 

 for that purpose as well as used on all the stacks 

 on the farm. 



The farms we saw in the Carse of Gowrie showed 

 close business-like management, and the system has 

 been well devised to suit the soil and the local 

 markets ; it looked very profitable farming, so much 

 of the produce being sold away. Naturally such a 

 course of cropping and sale involves a considerable 

 labour bill, and with Dundee at hand to compete for 

 men wages are high up to 2os. a week with allow- 

 ances, though the 2os. a week labourer generally earns 

 his money much better than the man at 155. Here 

 also we were told that emigration had reduced the 

 supply of rural labour far more than the attractions 

 of the towns. Just across the Firth in the county 

 of Fife one of our informants estimated the average 

 wage of a good man as 245. a week, made up as 

 follows : .40 a year, a pint of sweet milk daily, 

 half a boll of meal per month, two tons of potatoes, 

 and a free house, with some extras in harvest ; and 



