440 
Sutherland Reclamation. 
courts extending 7 feet farther ; and on the north side are the 
cart-shed and manure house, IG feet 6 inches deep. The whole 
block of buildings thus forms a square of more than 100 feet. 
The floor of the central barn, as shown in the section A B, is 
well raised above the level of the cattle courts ; a large threshing- 
floor with a granary and store-rooms for cake, &c., extends over 
the cattle courts. As the site of the buildings is much exposed, 
there is a special contrivance to prevent rain or snow beating 
into the barn when the door is opened to admit a load of corn 
or turnips ; before opening the sliding door the external swing 
door is placed so as to close the windward side and protect the 
inner door from the drift. The roof is of slate, in two frames, 
resting in the centre on iron pillars, and the walls are of stone 
obtained in the reclamations. This set of buildings has cost 
about 2000/. — a large outlay upon a farm of little over 400 acres, 
but yet not an extravagant sum for buildings of this size very 
substantially erected. The mere roofing-in of 10,000 square feet 
is of itself very costly, while all the internal fittings are of a 
good and substantial character. The question may, however, 
be fairly raised, whether an arable farm intended chiefly as an 
adjunct to a sheep farm requires a set of buildings of this size. 
Had there been less accommodation for cattle, it is probable 
that the straw would have been better utilized, and more of it 
would have been eaten by sheep. In the reclamations that 
have been recently set on foot it is the Duke's intention to 
defer as long as possible the erection of any but the most 
necessary part of the buildings, thinking it better to be guided 
in this matter by the wants of a tenant after a few years have 
shown clearly what his system of farming requires. 
It is intended that 384 acres of grass lying on the north- 
west of this farm shall be improved for pasture. The natural 
herbage on this land contains a large proportion of fog-grass 
and of the deer-hair (Scirpus ccespitosus), a species of small 
sedge that shoots up like a thick braird of corn in the middle 
of May, and provides food for stock till the month of Atigust. 
The land was first drained with pipes and stones two chains 
apart. The dry grass on about 20 acres was accidentally burned 
in March ; this part was afterwards dressed with cwt. of 
common salt, and ^ cwt. of superphosphate per acre, and in the 
following June it presented a bright green appearance to the 
eye. It was not convenient to leave this piece out of the gene- 
ral cultivation, and it could not, therefore, be judged how long 
the improved appearance would have lasted. In the summer of 
1877 the whole of the 384 acres were " disced " twice over. This 
operation tore up a good deal of the tough fibrous root of the 
deer-hair, and at one time it seemed likely that the whole of 
