AGRICULTURE IN SCOTLAND — 179I-I796. 99 



His report is meagre, and deals chiefly with Lochaber, 

 Sunart, and Morven. In these districts the breed of cattle 

 was the Highland. The horses kept in North Argyll and 

 Lochaber were chiefly of the Highland breed. Mr Robson 

 reports somewhat favourably of the horses in Morven, 

 Ardnamurchan, and Sunart, stating that the first improve- 

 ment made on the native breed in these districts was due 

 to stallions brought by Sir Alexander Murray from Spain. 

 In the Island of Kerrera, Mr Robson found Highland 

 cattle excelling any he had yet seen, the cows being hand- 

 some and strong. 



Mr Robson's report may be taken in connection with 

 the report made on the Hebrides by Mr Robert Heron, 

 doubtless the Kirkcudbrightshire author of a History of 

 Scotland at one time in fair repute. Mr Heron was not a 

 practical agriculturist, but he writes from information laid 

 before him. He gives a description of the various islands, 

 to which he adds a chapter summarising his information. 

 Speaking generally of the Hebrides, he says that 'the 

 horses, the descendants of a race originally not large, had, 

 through a series of generations of scanty feeding in the 

 severe climate, dwindled down to a petty size, in A\hich 

 they were more fitted to be the playthings of children than 

 for burden or draught.' They were, however, hardy and 

 wonderfully patient of fatigue. The islands he estimated 

 to contain 30,000 head of black cattle, one-fourth of which 

 number annually exported, brought in the greater part of 

 the money with which the rents were paid. The breed ap- 

 pears to have been oftener crossed than the horses. ' They 

 are,' he says, ' a mixed race, small, hardy, but capable of 

 being fattened to a great weight.' It is a curious circum- 

 stance that, while several of the north-eastern counties are 

 reported, at the end of the last century, as drawing their 

 best bulls from the Island of Skye, nothing is said in the 

 reports on the Hebrides of the special excellence of the 

 cattle there. We should note that the cattle reared in the 

 Hebrides w^ere chiefly disposed of at two markets held in 

 May and July at Portree, in Skye, whence the v.-est-High- 



G 2 



