90 HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr Donaldson, also, on the same date, furnished the 

 report on Moravshirk. He mentions that little im- 

 provement had been made on the agriculture of the county 

 until about 1/68, when William, ist Earl of Fife, ' began 

 to grant leases to particular, substantial, and intelligent 

 farmers of lands formerly kept by four or five tenants.' 

 This example was rapidly followed by the other pro- 

 prietors, and the system of agriculture, and the appearance 

 of the low country had become infinitely improved. Mr 

 Donaldson mentions that potatoes were first introduced 

 into the county ' soon after the famine of 1740.' Turnips 

 had been long only partially cultivated over the county. 

 Shortly before the date of the report, however, ' the quan- 

 tity began to be increased, and sowing in drills had been 

 introduced.' Artificial grasses had been in use for 

 many years, but there was a great portion of land in the 

 high country on which red clover could not grow until 

 lime had been applied. It might be said that clover had 

 only come into frequent use in the district within a few 

 years before the date at which Mr Donaldson wrote. The 

 ploughs used in the county were either the English plough 

 or Small's plough. Thrashing machines had been recently 

 erected in the lower districts, there being eight of them in 

 the county. Mr Donaldson mentions that Mr Thomas 

 Duncan, tenant of the Earl of Moray, in Alves, was the 

 first who introduced fanners into the county ; and Mr 

 George Duncan, his son, was the first to build a thrashing 

 machine and use a cast-iron mould board on the plough. 

 Previous to 1768, no farm houses or offices in the county 

 were covered with slates, nor were timber floors common. 

 Mr William Davidson, a tenant of Lord Fife's at Moneton, 

 near Elgin, was the first to build a regular set of farm 

 houses in the district. The farm buildings in the county 

 were, at the date of the report, not inferior to those of any 

 farms of the same extent in the south of Scotland. The 

 wages of a common ploughman were from £6 to j^j stg. ; 

 those of a female servant from 40s. to 50s. per year, ' ex- 

 clusive of their maintenance, which is in general provided 

 for them in the family, or six bolls of oatmeal at nine stone 



