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AGRICULTURE
THE Highlands of Scotland,
being a purely agricultural and pastoral country, and its prosperity closely
linked with those industries, we should naturally expect that the
development of agricultural and grazing pursuits would be the chief aim of
its inhabitants, and that numerous experimental farms and agricultural
colleges should be scattered all over the country; but it is not so. The
Highland and Agricultural Society, established over one hundred years ago,
undoubtedly has done much good, and to some extent stimulated farmers to
practise improved methods of husbandry; but the local associations, or
farmers' societies, have done little more than create a wholesome rivalry
among the few cattle breeders, and it is only in some localities here and
there that experimental work has been carried on with anything like
scientific precision. [In this respect the Welsh are far in advance of us,
for-in the year 1898 a fully equipped experimental farm was established in
connection with the North Wales University College, Bangor, which had only
been in existence 16 years.]
When comparing the present
condition of agriculture with what it represented at the commencement of the
last century, notwithstanding the inferior nature of the soil and the
ungenial climate, many Highland farmers, by their shrewdness and resolute
determination, although labouring under so many difficulties, have
distinguished themselves. more than any other class of farmers perhaps any-.
where, and the great progress which agriculture has made in the
north-eastern parts of Scotland during, the last hundred years testifies to
the high position which these Highlanders now occupy as agriculturists. In
the poorer localities, particularly among the crofting class, especially in
the outer Hebrides, little advance has been made during the past one hundred
years. At the commencement of this century, agricultural prices were
exceedingly high. In 1812 wheat fetched 126s. 6d. per quarter, but gradually
it fell until in 1822 it declined to 44s. 7d. per quarter, while in 1844
wheat sold at 26s. per quarter. Notwithstanding these fluctuations, we find
that the rentals of Inverness and Ross-shires stood as follows:—
Showing an increase in the 72
years of £235,327 on the rental of Inverness-shire, and for the combined
counties of Ross and Cromarty £188,893; from these figures—after making a
liberal deduction for increase in Burghs and valuation of Railways—we must
infer that farmers, seventy years ago, must have had a good time, or that
to-day the tillers of the soil must be labouring for nought.
Agriculture during the
present century has had a series of revivals and of corresponding
depressions. The most notable depression began about the year 1879, when a
series of bad seasons came-in succession, till affairs became so desperate
in 1879 that a Royal Commission of enquiry was. appointed to inquire into
the prevailing agricultural distress; and the Commissioners' report, which
was issued in 1882, pointed out that two of the most prevalent causes of
distress were, bad seasons and foreign competition, aggravated by increased
cost of production and heavy loss of live stock from disease.
On the strength of the
Commissioners' report Mr. Gladstone's Government, in 1883, passed the
Agricultural Holdings' Act, a measure tending in the right direction, yet
conferring on the tenant but few of the privileges which he contends he is
entitled to. Of the other legislative measures passed during last century I
need hardly mention the repeal of the Corn Laws, the Abolition of Hypothec,
the Ground Game Act, the Abolition of the Malt Tax, [Some contend that the
Abolition of the Malt Tax has been injurious to the farmer, by removing what
used to be a practical bounty on British barley. But if this was its effect,
the intention of it was undoubtedly good, and the effect was unforeseen by
the promoters of the Act.] and the Cattle Diseases Act of 1884, all measures
having a tendency to ameliorate the condition of the tenant farmer.
About a quarter of a century
ago agricultural prices stood at a remunerative figure, and the demand for
farms far exceeded the supply, resulting in fabulous prices being given for
land; and at the same period landlords were seized with a mania for creating
large farms, and consequently hundreds of the small tenants were evicted,
and sometimes as many as a dozen holdings were rolled into one vast farm.
Men of capital readily took up every farm in the market, many of them on
long leases; but a series of bad seasons landed most of these large farmers
in bankruptcy. Some managed with difficulty to carry out their agreement,
but on the expiry of their lease they quitted as ruined men, while others
failed to complete any more than half the terms of their contracts.
Big farms have therefore
proved a failure, and several causes can be assigned for this. The chief
cause may, however, be attributed to cost of production together with low
prices; because the big farmer when not near a town must employ a large
permanent staff, whereas in the days when he was surrounded by small tenants
and crofters he could secure labour just as he required it.
The landlords also made a
fatal mistake when they converted the small and middle class farms into
extensive holdings. No doubt they considered it more economical, as one set
of offices would serve where perhaps five or six steadings would be required
were the various farms to be re-let, the buildings of nearly all the smaller
farms being in a most dilapidated condition at that period. How far their
economical policy has benefitted them they themselves know; but now they are
compelled to sub-divide those farms its well as to erect premises and
offices; and thus it appears to have been simply a case of putting off the
evil day for a short period, and during that period the evil was
accumulating. Had the small farmers been left in their holdings 'they would
in all probability have weathered through the storm of depression.
CATTLE BREEDING
WITH the exception of a few
well-known herds, particularly in Ross-shire high class breeding of cattle
does not receive the amount of attention in the Highlands which the beef
producing counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Forfar, etc., devote to this branch.
Indeed, in these days, what with foreign competition and low prices, it does
not pay the trouble and risk involved in rearing fat stock.
The West Highland ox, with
his shaggy coat and picturesque appearance, is the breed most profitable and
best adapted to the Highland counties.
In 1884 Argyllshire alone had
660,500 head of best Highland cattle.
Sheep farming is an equally
if not more important industry than arable farming. In 1884 it was estimated
that in the Highlands there were 6,983,293 sheep, of which 2,393,826 were
lambs. The once remunerative business of sheep farming-induced landlords to
convert whole tracts of terri-tory, then under cultivation, into extensive
sheep runs; and sheep farmers are therefore looked upon. by the crofters of
Scotland as the primary movers or originators of evictions.
Sheep farming, as well as the
kindred branch of agriculture, has suffered in the general depression:.
aggravated by the large importations of foreign mutton and wool. The
estimated quantity of wool grown in Scotland in 1884 was about 34,500,004
lbs., and the estimated weight of wool imported from Australasia in the same
year was 400,000,000 lbs.
Again, the fabulous prices
offered for sporting estates led to the breaking up of sheep farms and the
converting of them into deer forests, so that to-day there are about 24
millions of acres occupied as deer forests in the Highlands of Scotland.
Before leaving the question
of sheep I must allude to the great "Wool Fair" held at Inverness, in July
of each year. There are hundreds of thousands of sheep sold annually at this
market, and yet not a head is exhibited. "This market is
peculiar," says a well-known
writer, "in so far as no stock whatever is shown, the buyer depending
entirely upon the integrity of the seller together with the character the
stock is known to possess." "It is a great source of pride to the farmers in
this. part of Scotland to be able, as they are, to say that no question
involving legal proceedings has ever yet arisen out of a misrepresentation
of stock sold at this market, which has been in existence since the
commencement almost of last century."
Dairy farming is not carried
on scientifically, nor to any great extent beyond the requirements of local
consumption, and only in a very few localitie's is cheese manufactured
beyond what is required for home use. There is wide scope for developing
this industry, for in many of the English counties the farmers are solely
dependent on the manufacture of cheese as the means of paying their rents.
[Co-Operative Dairies, with Central Creameries, have been established in
Ireland, and prove most remunerative investments. There is a wide field in
the Highlands for the. establishment of similar manufactories.]
On the rich alluvial lands
skirting the, shores of the Cromarty and Moray Firths, and indeed throughout
the Highlands generally, where farms attain an area of any considerable
extent, cultivation is carried out on the most improved principles; and
large sums of money have been expended on draining, trenching, and squaring
lands. The modern improvements in agricultural machinery have materially
assisted the farmer in bringing the soil to the present high condition in
which we find the arable lands in those districts referred to.
"No account of the
agriculture of Scotland," says the late sub-editor of the "North British
Agriculturist"—Mr. James Landells—"would be complete without some reference
to the peculiar condition of the smaller tenants of the Highlands and
Islands. The system of agriculture pursued by the crofters, or the smaller
tenants, is of the most wretched description."
The chronic state of poverty
associated with the crofting class is alluded to in an earlier chapter. The
land agitation, which had been smouldering over the Highlands during the
past fifteen years, at length broke out in the wild and distant township of
Valtos in Skye, and from there it spread rapidly all over the Highlands and
Islands.
It was not till 1882 that the
agitation reached its climax, when the "Battle of the Braes," near Portree,
began, where a force of seventy policemen arrested a number of crofters
accused of having deforced a Sheriff Officer; they were, however, all
acquitted, except two, who were fined. In the .autumn of same year another
campaign was commenced at Braes, and similar riots broke out in Glendale;
and the turbulent spirit was spreading all over Skye, until it was found
necessary to despatch H.M. gunboat "Jackal" with a special Government
Commission on board to remonstrate with the inhabitants. The agitation had
by now raised such a feeling in the country, and so attracted even the
attention of Parliament, that in 1883 the Government appointed a Royal
Commission to enquire into the condition of the crofters and cottars of the
Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The Commission, with Lord Napier as
chairman, found " that the crofter population suffered from undue
contraction of the area of holdings, insecurity of tenure, want of
compensation. for improvements, high rents, defective communications, and
withdrawal of the soil in connection with the purposes of sport." "Defects
in education and in the machinery of justice, and want of facilities for
emigration, also contributed to depress the condition of the people, while
the fishing population, who were identified with the farming class, were in
want of harbours, piers, boats, and tackle for deep-sea fishing, and access
to the great markets of consumption." The Highland Land League was now
organised; and at Martinmas, 1884, a "no-rent" manifesto was issued; and
many tenants absolutely refused to pay any rent until the land was fairly
divided among them. Raids were made on deer forests, march fences were
demolished, and lands were forcibly taken possession of, until the whole of
Skye and the Long Island were in A complete state of chaotic anarchy.
Attempts were made to serve summonses of removal, but the officers were
mobbed and deforced. In November, 1884, it became necessary to send a
military expedition to Skye with four gun boats and five hundred marines.
This formidable force restored order, and the crofters accused of acts of
deforcement submitted to be quietly apprehended.
In face of the
recommendations contained in the report of the Royal Commission accentuated
by those riots in the Hebrides, Parliament in 1886 passed the Crofters'
Holdings (Scotland) Act, whereby three Commissioners were appointed to fix
"fair rents" and deal with the question of arrears, and at the end of year
1887 the Commissioners had examined 1767 holdings, and for year ending 31st
December, 1888, they examined and awarded decisions on 2185 holdings, being
a total of 3952 cases dealt with from the opening of the enquiry, having
7621 applications to be still dealt with as at 31st December, 1888.
I append a table showing
number of holdings for which "fair rents" have been fixed, and amount of
arrears cancelled.
* The total permanent
reductions in rent for the nine years 1886-87 to 1895-96 = £21,387 16s.—and
the amount of :arrears cancelled in same period = £123,469 2s. 10d.— Vide
Parliamentary Return, 6th April, 1897.
This gives an average
reduction of rent of 30.15 per cent, on the total number of cases examined,
and an average of 64.82 per cent. of cancelled arrears. These judicial
decisions prove that the crofters had just cause for complaint; and although
I shall not attempt to justify the means which they adopted for the purpose
of getting remedial legislation, still I will venture to say that our
legislators are pursuing a false policy in allowing bad laws to goad the
people to the verge of rebellion before they. introduce measures of reform;
for this gives an excitable race the idea that nothing for their benefit can
be obtained without becoming turbulent and riotous.
I have already shown that in
many parts of the. Highlands agriculture made rapid strides during the last
century; yet in the Hebrides, and,, indeed, among nearly the whole crofter
community, little if any progress has been made. In the first report issued
by the Crofters' Commission we find the following paragraphs:- "`The land,
both in Skye and in all the other islands visited, is subjected to a process
of continuous cropping which is disastrous. There is no particular shift or
rotation adopted, the land being continuously cropped. as long as it will
grow anything. The consequent waste and deterioration of the land,
especially the. weaker kinds, is enormous. This observation, however, is not
true to the same extent of Skye as of South and North list, the soil in Skye
being generally of a stronger nature."
"It may be added that in Skye
as in some other places we found great room for improvement in the matter of
leading drains. It frequently happened that a crofter suffered from his
neighbour, failing to make and keep these in a state of efficiency. - It
also frequently occurred that a crofter' waited for years on his landlord
getting such drains. scoured out in reliance on some real or supposed
obligation to do so, instead of putting them in working order himself and
thereby greatly improving his croft."
The Duke of Argyll, in a very
learned article in the "Nineteenth Century" of January, 1889, on
"Isolation," after deploring the alarming increase of the population on the
barren shores of the wild Hebrides, says:---"But there was another cause
that affected the whole of Scotland, where the rising tide of innovation and
improvement did not reach and did not submerge it. This cause was the
profound and almost unfathomable ignorance and. barbarism of the native
agriculture, together with. a traditional system of occupation, which, as it
were,, enshrined and encased every ancestral stupidity in an impenetrable
panoply of inveterate customs." This language may sound harsh, or even
unjust. And so it might be, if such language were not used. in the strictest
sense, and with a due application of the lessons to ourselves. We are all
stupid in our various degrees, and each generation of men wonders at the
blindness and stupidity of those who have gone before them. Alan only opens
his owlish eyes by gradual winks and blinks to the opportunities of nature
and to his own powers in relation to them. Let us just think, for example,
of the case of preserving grass in "silos," a resource only discovered, or,
at least, recognised, within the last few years, yet a resource which
supplied one essential want of agriculture in wet climates at no greater
cost of ingenuity or of trouble than digging a hole in the ground, covering
the fresh cut and wet material with sticks, and weighting it with stones."
"There is, however, something
almost mysterious in the helpless ignorance of Scottish rural customs up to
the middle of the last century. . . . In a country where there is a heavy
rainfall, its inhabitants never thought of artificial drainage. In a country
where the one great natural product was grass of exceptional richness and
comparatively long endurance, they never thought of saving a morsel of it in
the form of hay. In a country where even the poorest cereal could only grow
by careful -attention to early sowing, they never sowed till :a season which
postponed the harvest to a wet and stormy autumn. In a country where such
crops required every nourishment which the soil could afford to sustain
them, they were allowed to be choked with weeds, so that the weed crop was
heavier than the grain. . . . They sow corn as if they were feeding hens,
and plant potatoes as if they were dibbling beans. They think the more they
put in the more they will take out. In short, we have here a survival of the
wretched husbandry of the -lowest period of the military ages staring at us
in the fierce light of our own scientific and industrial times. "Without a
doubt, a great deal of the above is quite true; but then we know that
however impartial His Grace may try to be, yet his judgment must be more or
less biassed, as His Grace has anything but a favourable opinion of what he
calls "the worst of all native customs"—"crofter" townships.
"The whole of the outer
Hebrides," continues His Grace, "are mainly composed of the oldest, the
hardest, the most obdurate •rock existing in the world. It is the same rock
which -occupies a great area in Canada, on the north bank of the St.
Lawrence. The soil which gathers on it is generally poor, and even what is
comparatively good is often inaccessible. In its hollows, stagnant waters:
have slowly given growth to a vegetation of mosses, reeds, and stunted
willows. Gradually these have formed great masses and sheets of peat. Only
along the margin of the sea, where calcareous siliceous sands have mixed
with local deposits of clay, are there any areas of soil which even skill
and industry can make arable with success. The whole of the interior of the
island is one vast sheet of black and dreary bog. . . . To root them in.
that soil is to bury them in a bog—a bog physical,. a bog mental, and a bog
moral." So decides His Grace the Duke of Argyll; and yet Mr. Nimmo, one. of
the Commissioners appointed by the Government to enquire into the nature and
extent of the bogs in Ireland, in his report, issued in 1813, says: "I am
perfectly convinced, from all that I have seen, that any species of bog is,
by tillage and manure, capable of being converted into a soil fit for the
support of plants of every description; and, with due management, perhaps
the most fertile that can be submitted to the operations of the farmer.
Green crops—such as rape, cabbages, and turnips--may be raised with the
greatest success on firm bog, with no other manure than the ashes of the
same-soil. Permanent pastures may be formed on bog more productive than on
any other soil. Timber may be raised—especially firs, larch, spruce, and all
the aquatics—on the deep bog, and the plantations are fenced at little
expense; and with a due application of manure, every description of white
crops may be raised upon bog."
The expense of draining and
improving bog land, as estimated by Mr. Griffith, one of the Commissioners'
engineers, was about twenty-five shillings per acre, and he reckoned on
receiving an annual rent of thirty shillings per acre, on a lease of
twenty-one years.
Before the construction of
the Grand Canal from Dublin to the River Shannon, a portion of the Bog of
Allen, called the "Wet Bog," was originally valued to the promoters of the
Canal at one farthing per acre. It now lets for tillage and grazing at from
thirty shillings to forty shillings per acre.
I may be pardoned for
introducing this extraneous matter, as I wish to show the beneficial effect
arterial drainage would have on the swampy lands of the Highlands. Stagnant
waters produce one kind of unprofitable aquatic plants; vegetation is
affected by the quantity as well as the quality of the moisture which it
absorbs for its sustenance; and the cold, damp exhalations from the swampy
hollows have a most injurious effect on everything in their vicinity.
The draining of bog land in
Ireland has proved remunerative, and were the Government to do for the
Highlands and Islands of Scotland what they have on several occasions done
for Ireland in the way of drainage grants, and a complete scheme of arterial
drainage carried out in the Highlands, with a judicious planting of trees,
we should have a more fertile soil, a healthier and finer climate, a more
contented and industrious peasantry; and while the canals served as the
means of carrying off the superabundant waters, they could at the same time
be utilized as a waterway for the conveyance of the requirements of the
districts they penetrated, or used as a motive power for mills, which might
be erected along their banks.
'The method of letting farms
on long leases was, during prosperous years, considered one of the
distinguishing privileges of Scots farms, but in recent years matters have
entirely reversed. On the other hand, yearly tenancy has many objections.
The uncertainty of tenure tempts the farmer to take all he can out of the
soil while he has the opportunity; or perhaps, when he has exhausted or
impoverished the soil, he quits the holding. Of the two evils, therefore,
which is to be preferred, it is difficult to decide The most satisfactory
solution of the problem is the adoption of the principle embodied in the
Crofters' Holdings Act--security of tenure and rent fixed by a Commission.
FISHERIES
ANOTHER industry in the
Highlands of equal importance with agriculture is the sea fisheries. The
gross value of the sea fisheries of Scotland, according to the Fishery Board
returns for year 1887, amounted to £1,915,602 10s., of which sum £1,128,480
Ss. were accredited to the herring fishery. Tow, as the herring fishery is
chiefly confined to the Highland waters, it can be readily seen what an
enormous source of wealth this harvest of the sea yields to the country. The
means of employment it also gives to the surplus population of the Highlands
is very considerable, for no fewer than 49,221 men and boys were engaged in
the sea fisheries in the year 1866. In addition to this number, 50,973
persons were employed in connection with the summer herring fishery. The
estimated capital invested in boats, lines, nets, etc., is £1,712,349.
The herring fishery has gone
on increasing at an enormous rate since the year 1809, when the total number
of barrels cured was 90,185½; in 1850, the number increased to 544,009¼;
while in 1886 the number of barrels cured amounted to 1,103,424¼. Of this
aggregate quantity, 8605,911¼ barrels were, exported to Germany and other
places on the Continent; and a large proportion of the balance was sent to
America and to Ireland.
If it were not for this
industry, the Highlands —with its present low ebb in agricultural matters
--would be in a most deplorable state of starvation and misery; but the
All-wise Creator has compensated the poor Hebridean for his bleak and barren
land by providing a rich and inexhaustible -store in the precious treasures
of the mighty deep.
Although the fisheries of
Scotland have made ,extraordinary progress during the last fifty years,
-still there is much room for further development; ,and, to accomplish this,
several things are necessary. State aid must be given for the construction
of harbours and railways, [Since the above was written, the Government
granted :subsidies to the Highland Railway and West Highland Railway for
extensions of their systems.] and existing railway 'companies should be
compelled to carry fresh fish at a rate sufficient to pay them a fair
percentage for haulage, without swallowing up the entire profits of the
industry; a suitable and central station ought to be selected on the west
coast, where boats and steamers could land their cargoes so as to be
dispatched by the most rapid and economical route to the great consuming
centres of the Empire; and lastly, grants should be made to fishermen, on
favourable terms, for the proper equipment of the fishing fleet.
The restrictions surrounding
sums devoted by the Treasury under the Crofters' Holdings Act, have rendered
it next to impossible to apply the money for what it was intended; and
consequently-very few crofter fishermen have benefited therefrom.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE FISHERIES
I APPEND the most interesting
statement made by Professor Ewart before a committee of the House of Lords,
in evidence for the proposed railway for the West Highlands, in March, 1889.
Professor Cossar Ewart, of
the Scottish Fishery Board, said "that great shoals of herring were to be
found all along the West of Scotland; and both inside and outside the Long
Island there were immense shoals. There were always large shoals running up
the coasts of Coll and Tiree. Many of them pass along between Skye and the
mainland into Lochs Hourn and Nevis, and others skirted the-outside of Skye.
There was a sort of concentration of herring shoals on +he inner coast of
Skye, especially upon the southern part. In 1882 there were cured from Lochs
bourn and Nevis no less. than 80,000 crans of herring. The fishing in the
following year did not prove quite so good, but there was no reason to
suppose that the number of fish had decreased. On the coast the number of
fish taken has enormously increased during the last fifty years; some years
as many as one million crans were taken. In his opinion it was impossible to
diminish by any means in our power the number of herrings on our coasts.
Even when the herring did not enter Lochs Hourn and Nevis they were to be
found in abundance in the vicinity; but the fishermen in the district were
not equipped in such .a way as enabled them to follow the fish, their boats
being too small and their gear insufficient. On the East Coast the fishermen
with their large boats scoured the whole of the north seas in search. of The
herring, going out as far as fifty or sixty miles; and they followed up the
shoals wherever they might go. The West Coast fishermen were an entirely
different class. Fishing had never been prosecuted by them in any systematic
manner. It is difficult to learn the trade of fishing; but the the men of
the West Coast were taking advantage of the example shown them by the East
Coast fishermen who had migrated there, and already there was a number of
very expert fishermen belonging to Stornoway and other centres. Hitherto,
except in certain cases, the fishermen of the West had received little
encouragement. They had been standing, if he might say so, with one foot on
the land and the other on the water, unable to make up their minds whether
to engage in fishing or to work their crops. He had known men who, after
having the necessary lines and hooks, had forsaken their resolutions to
become fishermen and, reverted to their crofts. The difficulty was that they
had no prospect of disposing of the fish with any profit .after they were
caught. Little was known about the white fish banks on the West Coast. He
knew, however, of a large bank lying to the north-west of Coll. The bank ran
up to Canna and outwards, and had a depth of from 11 to 50 fathoms. In
addition there were banks extending south-west towards Skerryvore and
Dhuiheartich Lighthouses. So famous, indeed, was this bank that East Coast
fishermen found it paid them to go round to Coll, build themselves huts, and
fish for cod and ling, which they dried and took home with them, or exported
to the Continent. Undoubtedly these men would prefer to have a market to
which they might send the fish in a fresh condition. The white fishing on
the West Coast had not been developed in the least, because as long as
herring paid well fishermen preferred to keep to that branch of the
industry. After suitable boats and gear, what the fishermen on the West
Coast required was ready and cheap access to the markets. The existing
railways of course performed valuable work, but there was a large district
between Strom Ferry and Oban. totally unprovided for. Roshven he regarded as
an extremely suitable place for a harbour connecting with a railway line. It
was convenient for all the-fishing grounds within the Hebrides, and it could
readily be reached from outside. The development of the fishing industry on
the West Coast was only a question of time. Already English fishing
schooners visited the Hebrides, and Irish vessels carne to Tiree. He had had
some experience of Norway, and he found that it cost less to convey herring
to London from Norway than from any part of Scotland.
"A scheme of co-operation
should also be organised by the fishermen, whereby they could establish a
central depot with a responsible agent in every ,large town. By these means
complete train loads of fresh fish might be despatched at cheaper rates than
by sending in driblets, and the various agents could keep the senders fully
apprised by telegrams of the demands of their respective markets."
TREE PLANTING
AT one period in the early
history of the Highlands the country was covered by vast tracts of pine
trees, and the remnants of these natural forests may be seen on mountain
-sides where solitary pine trees are dotted like stray sentinels on the
bleak crags of Glenorchy or buried in the deep morasses of Rannoch Moor.
The great forest of Caledonia
must have extended over many square miles of territory, and to-day large
areas of the country are covered by plantations of fir, oak, and other
trees, which take readily to the soil of our Northern Highlands.
The re-afforesting of the
Highlands is a matter which should engage the attention of Parliament: or
the Congested District Board, for, apart from the effect on the climate,
advantages are likely to accrue from sheltering bleak tracts of country and
affording cover for stock and game. The beautification of the country is no
small factor, but above and beyond all these considerations, there is the
possibility of a vast industry in the future, and the possibility of not
only supplying our home requirements in the way of timber for railway
sleepers and other industrial works, but, owing to the denuding of the
Norwegian and Swedish forests, it will be quite within the range of
probability that a large timber trade can be carried on with our colonies.
The nature of the soil in
nearly every portion of the Highlands is most admirably adapted for the
growth of pine, and from the slow growth of timber on our mountain sides,
the quality should even rival Baltic timbers.
There are thousands of acres
available for afforesting, land not suitable for cultivation or pastoral
purposes, but which could be profitably utilised for tree-planting. Again,
the vast amount of water power available in nearly every district of the
Highlands could be utilised in the manufacturing of the timber thus grown.
MANUFACTORIES
THE Highlands are singularly
destitute of manufactories, at least to any appreciable extent, for, with
the exception of a few wool mills and several distilleries, there is no
other branch of the manufacturing industry in the country. Shipbuilding was
at one period—before- ironclads were introduced--carried on in the
Highlands; and we find it recorded by Matthew Paris that, as far back as
1249, a magnificent vessel (Mavis Miranda) was specially built at Inverness
for the Earl of St. Pol and Bloise, to carry him with. Louis IX. of France
to the Holy Land. As far as Inverness is now concerned this industry is
extinct. I have not seen a vessel on the stocks for years. In so extensive
a, wool-growing country as the Highlands, with its unlimited source of
water-power, one would naturally expect to find the country studded with
woollen factories; but it is not so. Sir George Mackenzie, in his "Survey of
Ross and Cromarty, 1810," complains bitterly of the total. want of
encouragement by the inhabitants of the, country, and from the proprietors,
`in supporting a woollen manufactory started at Inverness by himself in
conjunction with other gentlemen, who thought the inhabitants of the
Highlands would eagerly encourage home industry.
About the beginning of this
century there were a good many woollen mills scattered over the Highlands;
but improved machinery caused the old-fashioned Band-loom to go the way of
the world, and they have fallen to decay, and neither sufficient energy nor
capital has arisen to replace them with modern machinery.
As an example of the decline
of the manufacturing industry, let us take the case of the Black. Isle,
where at this date not a factory of any description exists. [Through the
enterprising efforts of Mr. J. Douglas Fletcher of Rosebaugh, the Avoch
Woollen Mills have been recently equipped with new machinery, and a
considerable amount of business is now being done.] At Avoch, fifty years
ago, there was a large woollen mill in operation, and the manufacturing of
coarse linen from home-grown lint was carried on, and herring and salmon
nets and fishing tackle were extensively made, and several carding mills
were scattered over the peninsula. At Cromarty, less than eighty years ago,
"there was a mill for carding wool and jennies for spinning it; also a wauk-mill,
two flax mills, and a flour mill," . . . "a large brewery, and houses for
hemp manufactory. From the 5th January, 1807, to 5th January, 1808, there
were imported 185 tons of hemp, and about 10,000 pieces of bagging were sent
to London, which were valued at £25,000. During the same period were
exported .1550 casks and tubs containing 112 tons of pickled pork and hams,
and. 60 tons of dried cod-fish. There is also a ropework in operation, and
shipbuilding just begun." [Sir George E. Mackenzie's "Survey of Ross and
Cromarty, 1810."] To-day, I daresay, there is not another town of the size
of Cromarty in Scotland more destitute of commerce, nor more ,deserted. One
may well ask the question, whence this decay? It is simply isolation, and
what is here true of Cromarty and the Black Isle is also true of many other
isolated districts in the Highlands.
DISTILLERIES
THE most extensive industry
in the Highland is the distillation of whisky, and so enormous has the
demand been for Highland whisky that in the year 1851 the quantity of
spirits produced in Scotland amounted to 20,164,962: gallons, by far the
greater quantity of which was manufactured in the Highlands. In the year
1325, when the duty was reduced from 6s. 2d. to 2s. 4d. per imperial gallon,
the quantity distilled was only 4,324,322 gallons. The Government duty per
imperial gallon now is 106. 4d. per proof gallon. Smuggling or illicit
distilling is carried on to a considerable extent in the remote districts of
the Highlands at this very hour; and although the Revenue Officers make many
captures, yet the practice can never be suppressed so long as there is so
high a duty on whisky. By evading this high duty, the profit is so
remunerative as to tempt many a poverty-stricken crofter to venture the risk
of capture that he may be enabled to meet his obligations, and in many cases
he depends on the sale of his smuggled whisky for the money with which to
pay his rent.
Smuggling is an evil which
cannot be too much deprecated, for it not only demoralises the manufacturer,
but often leads to intemperance and immorality in communities that might
otherwise be sober and industrious.
KELP
THE manufacture of kelp at
the beginning of I last century was one of the most remunerative industries
ever established in the Highlands, and maritime proprietors have suffered
material loss from the abandonment of this manufacture.
The product of the alkaline
sea-weed was used in the manufacture of plate-glass and soap; but scientific
research discovered a cheaper substitute, which, together with the reduction
of duty on Spanish barilla, completely outworked the profitable production
of kelp in the Highlands. As a source of income it was enormous, especially
when the price ranged from £15 to £20 per ton; it, however, gradually
declined to £4 and £5 per ton, and now little if any kelp is made in
Scotland. I recollect seeing some burnt in Orkney about twenty years ago.
Lord Teignmouth, in his "Sketches of the Coasts and Islands of Scotland,"
states "that the number thrown out of employment by the failure of the kelp
manufacture—in a memorial prepared at Edinburgh, in the beginning of 1828,
by the proprietors of the western maritime estates----amounted to 50,000." |
