Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

DEER FORESTS AND GROUSE MOORS.
a brace only has been returned for consignments of
200 or 300, the prices ranging from 6d. to 4s. each
bird, according to quality and condition. The economy
of a grouse moor is not so well understood as it ought
to be; it should have been ascertained, long ere this,
how many birds should be shot, and how many left, in
order to keep up a proper breeding stock. A large
number of parent birds are of course required to admit
of the annual slaughter of 500,000 brace of grouse.
The rents derived from grouse moors range from about
9cL to double that sum per acre, and the laird receives
a rental for sheep fed as well — sheep and grouse being
possible on the same stretches of heather, though deer
and sheep cannot exist together.
The Royal Commission appointed in 1892 to report
on the land occupied as deer forests, grouse moors, and
grazing farms in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland,
spent about two years in visiting the localities to be
reported on and hearing evidence, for which purpose
sixty-four public sittings were held. Their report was
issued in 1895, and stated that not only deer forests
but grazing farms (including grouse moors) had been
inspected, and that large tracts of land had been found
by them to be unsuitable for cultivation by crofters or
others, either from its sterility or inaccessible position.
But they had to report, on the other hand, that a large
acreage of the land examined was in their opinion suit-
able (1) for the creation of new crofting holdings, (2)
for the extension of existing holdings, or (3) for the
creation of moderate-sized farms at rents exceeding the
statutory limit (£30) of the Crofters' Act. The areas,
in acres, proposed to be dealt with in these three
fashions are as follows: —
(1.) FOB NEW HOLDINGS.
Argyll,
Inverness, ....
Ross and Cromarty, .
Sutherland, . . .
Caithness, ....
Orkney,
Shetland, ....
Old
Arable.
21,247
17,559
3,076
2,426
2,234
1,314
2,246
211,268
255,950
68,037
154,234
31,421
2,958
20,780
232,515
273,509
71,113
156,660
33,655
4,272
23,026
794,750
(2.) FOE EXTENSION OF EXISTING HOLDINGS.
Argyll, ....
Inverness, . . .
Ross and Cromarty,
Sutherland, . .
Caithness, . . .
Orkney, ....
Shetland, . . .
457
1,674
1,033
370
270
356
368
34,151
34,608
127,146
128,820
116,065
117,098
118,892
119,262
12,595
12,865
8,357
8,713
17,454
17,822
439,188
(3.) FOE MODEEATELT SIZED FARMS.
Argyll, ....
Inverness, . . .
Ross and Cromarty,
Sutherland, . .
Caithness, . . .
Orkney
Shetland, . . .
1,412
1,546
1,436
1,500
499
105,278
145,723
133,586
118,476
39,391
Grand total,
106,690
147,269
135,022
119,976
39,890
548,847
1,782,785
The report adds that in the case of all lands thus
scheduled the boundaries proposed are subject to re-
109
adjustment. Part of the land thus scheduled by the
Commissioners consisted of ground formerly under culti-
vation (old arable), and part of ground suitable for hill
pasture; but a much larger area of both descriptions of
ground was found within the limits of grazing farms
than of deer forests, so it must not be assumed that the
bulk of the land above-mentioned yields at present only
a sporting rental. As regards the land suitable for the
creation or extension of crofts, it is with very few
exceptions partlyarable but mainlypastoral,and it is not
suggested that they would, in the majority of cases, be
alone capable of maintaining the crofter and his family,
but rather that this might furnish him with a home
and partial occupation while he would have to depend
on money or wages earned by fishing or labour for the
payment of his rent and the support of his family.
The Commissioners considered that the occupants should
be selected with care, and that they should only be
called on to pay a ' fair rent ■ in the statutory sense of
the term. They also recommend a large extension of
the 'club farm' system of cultivating such holdings,
whereby the crofters should only have joint ownership
in a common stock of cattle, under one central manage-
ment for herding, breeding, clipping, selling, and division
of profits, or when necessary imposing assessments
required for their undertaking. When this system is
honestly carried out, they considered it enabled the
utmost to be made of the ground, while it made the
individual crofter more certain of his return than he
could otherwise be. The lands scheduled as suitable for
moderate-sized farms at a rent above ,£30 were adapted
for grazing farms, with a due proportion of the land
under crops, and they would necessarily vary much in
extent according to the nature and quality of the
ground. Such farms they considered many crofters of
the better class would be glad to obtain.
The Commissioners did not make any suggestion as
to compensation either to owners of lauds scheduled or
to their present occupants, or as to fresh outlays for
fencing, building, etc., necessitated by the creation of
crofts, because they considered these questions beyond
the scope of their directions, though they referred to the
fact that such points may arise in the future. They
also remark that the transference of tenants to, and
their establishment in, new holdings may raise questions
of public policy.
A grouse when prepared for the spit will weigh 1 lb.
on an average, so that the moors provide a considerable
amount of food-stuff. Red deer or roe venison is not
greatly appreciated for food, the best venison for the
table being that derived from fallow or park-fed deer.
In Scotland there fall to the guns of the deer-stalkers
in the course of the season, and from the slaughter of
hinds which occurs later on, as many, perhaps, as
10,000 head of red deer and roebuck, weighing on the
average 12 stone (14 lb. each) per carcase, thus yield-
ing a food supply of 140,000 stone of venison, most of
which is distributed among the servants of the forests,
or in gifts to friends. It is thought that in all Scot-
land there are not, perhaps, more than from 50,000 to
60,000 head of deer of all kinds, which gives (at 50,000)
some 40 to every 1000 acres of forest. There are not
more, as the ground occupied is in many places utterly
barren, and scarcely able to provide herbage for a few
mountain goats. If the persons who contend that men
and sheep should take the place of the deer were to
visit the vast solitudes of rock and moorland, they
would at once see that human habitation is an impos-
sibility. Large sums of money are annually expended
in the Scottish Highlands by the lessees of deer forests
and grouse moors, which, were it not for the sport
these afford, would be spent in other countries.
1709