Report, on some features of Scottish Agriculture. 163 
pulse-straw ; they begin to go off in January, weighing from 
18 to 22 lbs. per quarter, having never touched cake or corn. 
Thus there are two principal purchases in the year, but there is 
no fixed system, except that sheep are being bought in and sold 
off all the year round, after the autumn lot have been kept from 
twenty to twenty-two weeks in the manner described. Folding 
on grass is not liked, nor are the sheep allowed to have a 
frequent change of pasture. Both systems have been tried, but 
the one now pursued has been found to produce the best results. 
When the newly-purchased sheep arrive they are immediately 
dipped in a mixture of soft soap, tobacco-juice, and spirits of 
tar. Shearing is done on a reciprocity system, as in the High- 
lands, by the shepherds on the neighbouring farms ; and a good 
man will shear from 20 to 23 in a day. Fleeces vary con- 
siderably, but average 4 to the stone of 24 lbs., although some- 
times as many as 6 are required to turn the scale. 
Horses. — Until recently, 9 pairs of horses were kept ; but now 
they have been reduced to 8 pairs. The end of spring and 
beginning of summer they are kept on hay and cut grass until 
after turnip-sowing, when a part of them are turned out, and 
remain in the field until after harvest. They then get 3 feeds of 
oats per day, with hay or straw. If the latter, they get a mash 
of bran or grey barley, generally twice, but sometimes three times, 
per week. As a general system when the horses get no grass, 
they have one or two feeds of roots per day, either turnips, small 
potatoes, or carrots. Oat-straw is always reserved for the cattle, 
the horses getting either wheat or bean straw, never barley- 
straw. Occasionally the older horses get a little Indian corn 
(whole), or beans and peas, with their oats, especially if the 
latter should run short, or the other food be cheap. 
Labouk. 
Probably there is not a farm in Scotland on which the labourer 
is better cared for. The principal lot of cottages are built round 
three sides of a square, the centre of which is ornamented with 
a refreshing clump of evergreens ; they gained the Highland 
Society's Gold Medal in 1848, and I therefore give ground- 
plans of these and two other varieties of them. The married 
ploughman gets his cottage rent-free, an annual payment in 
kind of \ acre of potato-ground, 66 bushels of oats, 18 bushels 
of barley, and 8 bushels of pulse, with keep for a cow and pig, 
as well as coals, and a certain amount of money. 
In the ' Fourth Report of the Commissioners on the Employ- 
ment of Women, Young Persons, and Children in Agriculture, 
M 2 
