88 HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr James Donaldson, factor for the Hon. William 

 Ramsay Maulc of Panmure, reported in 1794 on the 

 county of Banff. This county owes much, agriculturally, 

 to James, 6th Earl of Findlater, who, while Lord Desk- 

 ford,* taking up his residence in the district, was the first to 

 introduce, about 1748, turnip husbandry into the county. 

 With a view to the spread of improvement, he took one of 

 his farms into his own management, and placed it under 

 the care of an experienced overseer whom he brought 

 from England. He also selected intelligent tenants, to 

 whom he gave leases at reasonable rates for terms of two 

 nineteen years, and a lifetime. Notwithstanding his 

 unw^earied exertions, it was many years, says Mr Donald- 

 son, ' before sown grasses, turnip, and other green crops 

 came into general practice, even in that corner of his estate 

 where he himself resided.' At the date of the report, 

 although turnips were common on many farms, ' they were 

 not cultivated to so great an extent as they ought to be.' 

 Potatoes had been in general cultivation for about forty 

 years. Among the poorer tenants the old Scotch plough 

 was still in use. Thrashing mills had recently been intro- 

 duced. Wages for ploughmen were from £6 to £"] a year. 

 Roads were in a wretched condition. The road from Keith 

 to Fochabers is described as ' perhaps the worst in Great 

 Britain.' Mr Donaldson speaks highly of the character of 

 the live stock in the county. He says that the district had 

 long been famous for the best and largest breed of black 

 cattle in the north of Scotland, and he adds that more 

 money was brought into the county for cattle than for 

 grain. Good though the stock were, yet before the intro- 

 duction of improvements, the cattle had been to a consider- 

 able extent valued as means by which the lands could be 

 cultivated, rather than as an object of profit to the farmer. 

 The advance in the price of stock had led to more attention 

 to their improvement, and some of the most respectable 

 proprietors, particularly the Earl of Fife and General Grant 

 of Ballindalloch, had ' spared no expense in introducing 



* A member of the Edinburgh Society. See page 3^ 



