Sutherland Reclamation. 
457 
and are good labourers. In summer thej are away fishing. For 
their accommodation, five turf-huts or bothies have been 
erected ; one of these bothies can be built for 15/. or 20/., 
and will hold from 25 to 30 men. The whole of the land in 
the six fields has been drained 22 feet apart, mostly with stones, 
but some with pipes. The work has been most laborious, the 
subsoil being in some places hard gravel, but more commonly 
a grey till with big rocks in it, requiring to be broken with 
sledge-hammers ; the average cost has been Is. per chain for 
digging and filling. In a few spots of bog the drains have been 
sometimes cut 8 feet deep to reach a solid bottom. In order 
to dispose of the enormous number of stones raised in the 
trenching, the walls dividing the fields have been built of an 
extraordinary thickness, and deep hollows occurring in the 
line of road have been filled up with solid stone instead of 
earth. Fields Nos. 1 and 2 were trenched in 1872 by men paid 
by the day, at a cost of about 20/. per acre ; and the land was 
left fallow for three years. The total cost, including the fencing 
and draining of these two fields, has been 40/. per acre, but the 
cost of the other fields will be rather less. The expense over 
the whole farm will be much more than was anticipated ; the 
land has proved to be much more stony than it was expected 
to be, while the rate of wages has nearly doubled since the work 
was first taken in hand. The arrangement was that the tenant 
should begin to pay interest as soon as the first crop was put 
in, at the rate of 2^ per cent, for ten years, and 5 per cent, 
after that. The latter part of the airangement may however be 
open to reconsideration, as the cost has far exceeded the estimate. 
A fair yield of oats was obtained as a first crop in 1875 ; it was 
dressed with superphosphate, dissolved bones, and guano. The 
land was sown with turnips in 1876, and again in 1877 ; 
both crops were fed off by sheep, the first was a poor but the 
second a very good crop. In 1878, there were about 47 acres 
in oats partly carried at the time of my visit, the crop being about 
4 quarters per acre ; the remaining 9 acres were in rape and 
seeds. The rape had come well after turnips, but was bad 
where grown after potatoes. These two fields will be laid down 
in permanent pasture. The rest of the new land will grow tur- 
nips and other crops for sheep. The remaining fields have been 
trenched by hand, each one year after the other ; they have then 
been left fallow for two years. Long experience has shown that 
this is by far the most economical method of treatment ; it is better 
in this work to lose time and the interest of the outlay for two 
years, than to attempt to force a crop before nature has prepared 
the soil for its growth. The soil is inverted to a depth of 14 
inches, and stirred by the pick to a further depth of 6 inches. 
