lOO HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



land cattle were popularly described by the east-country 

 farmers as Isle of Sk}-c cattle. The sheep of the Hebrides 

 are described as a mixed race, in some islands being allied 

 to the sheep of Shetland, but more commonly of the breeds 

 of Galloway and the hills of Clydesdale. The implements 

 in the islands were of the rudest form. In the Long 

 Island, for example, the plough commonly used had only 

 one handle, which the person who directed it held in 

 his right hand as he walked opposite it, having in his 

 left a lash to drive the horses. Before this plough was 

 a machine drawn by one horse, to which was fixed a 

 crooked iron of the form of a reaping hook to cut the 

 ground, so that the plough might turn it out with greater 

 facility. This latter implement was known as the ' ristle 

 plough.' In the Island of Coll, it is reported that 'two 

 men with two horses first guide and drag the ristle, which 

 cuts Avithout opening the furrow. These are followed by 

 the Scotch plough, drawn by four horses, and guided by 

 other two men, which opens up the furrow and turns over 

 the sod.' Mr Heron says that neither fanners nor thrash- 

 ing machines had been introduced among the Hebridian 

 husbandmen. The quern continued to be in common use. 

 The chief crop grown was oats. The culture of turnips 

 had been attempted in some islands with fair success. A 

 mixture of clover and rye-grass had been begun to be 

 cultivated in small fields by many of the gentlemen of the 

 Hebrides. The ground under potatoes had much in- 

 creased, and they were regarded as profitable above every 

 other crop. For the most part in the Hebrides the roads, 

 at the date of the report, were only footpaths. In some 

 cases, in the various islands, the lands were let out in ex- 

 tensive tracts to tacksmen, who paid fair sums of yearly 

 rent. Respecting the island of Harris, Mr Heron gives the 

 following account of a curious social condition : 



Besides the farms possessed by the tacksmen, there are small tenant-farms 

 possessed each by a number of petty tenants, who live together in a village ; 

 hold the farm by one common deed of tack ; and have it parcelled out among 

 them in penny and farthing divisions. The tacksmen's tenants differ from 

 those in situation only by holding from the tacksmen instead of the landlord — 

 having no connection with one another in their tenures, and seldom having 



