EARLY PREMIUMS. I03 



were also offered for essays on the fisheries, on manufac- 

 tures, on mines and minerals, on villages, on roads and 

 bridges, and on linen and woollen manufactures. Prizes 

 in money were offered to actual farmers and tenants as 

 follow : 



One guinea and lolbs. of clover seed to each of five tenants in the counties 

 of Orkney, Caithness, Sutherland, the Highland districts of Ross, Inverness, 

 Nairn, Elgin, Banff, Aberdeen, Perth, Stirling, Dumbarton, Argyll, and Bute, 

 having the greatest proportion of their arable land under a crop from sown 

 clover and ryegrass seed in the year 1785. 



Three guineas to each of three actual farmers who should raise the greatest 

 weight of hay upon one acre of sown grass in said counties and Highland 

 districts. 



One guinea and fibs of turnip seed to each of tive tenants in the above 

 counties and Highland districts who should have the greatest proportion of 

 their arable land under turnip in the year 1785. 



Three guineas to the person or company who should raise the gi-eatest 

 quantity of potatoes on one acre in said counties or Highland districts. 



Ten guineas to the farmer drawing the highest price for three-year-old 

 slots that have not been housed for the two last years, reared on his own farm, 

 and sold in Scotland, not under ten in number, and on a farm in the counties 

 of Caithness and Sutherland. 



Five guineas to the actual farmer in Mull or any of the Islands to the 

 northward or upon the coast from Oban, in Argjdlshire, round to Dornoch, 

 in Sutherlandshire, who should raise and dress the greatest quantity of clean 

 skutched flax, fit for the heckle, from one Scotch statute acre. 



Four premiums in money, one of five and three of three 

 guineas each, were offered for woollen cloth, stocking 

 spinning, &c. 



With the offer of these premiums, the Society began 

 its active life, and its early operations will be best exempli- 

 fied by a notice of the premiums awarded. We group the 

 awards in classes, and take each group in the order of pri- 

 ority, determined by the date of the first award in the class. 

 This order leads to the notice of premiums voted for the 

 encouragement of 



Linen and Woollen Manufactures. 

 The first prize voted by the Society was a gold medal, 

 which was awarded, 2nd December 1785, to James and 

 William Mackerras, weavers in Morangie, part of Lord 

 Ankerville's estate in the parish of Tain, Ross-shire, for the 

 establishment of a woollen manufactory. Other prizes, 



