Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

HEBRIDES
HEBRIDES
fishing gear, with some barrels of salt-herrings, or
bundles of dried cod or ling for winter use.' As origin-
ally portioned out the crofts appear to have been quite
sufficient to maintain the crofter's family, and yield the
landlord his yearly rent. But when kelp was largely
and profitably manufactured, when potatoes were exten-
sively and successfully cultivated, when the fishings
were good, and the price of cattle was high, the crofter
found that his croft was more than sufficient for his
wants ; and when a son or a daughter married, he
divided it with the young couple, who built themselves
another house upon the ground, sharing the produce,
and contributing to the rent. Thus many crofts which
are entered on the landlord's rent-roll as in the hands
of one man, are, in fact, occupied by two, three, or even
in some cases, four families. On some estates efforts
were made to prevent this sub-division, but without
much success. If the erection of a second house on the
croft were forbidden, the married son or daughter was
taken into the existing house ; and though the land
might not be formally divided, it was still required to
support one or more additional families. It appears
that attempts were made in some cases to put an end to
this practice, 'but it was found to involve so much
apparent cruelty and injustice, and it was so revolting
to the feelings of all concerned, that children should be
expelled from the houses of their parents, that the evil
was submitted to and still continues to exist.' The
population thus progressively increasing received a still
farther stimulus from the kelp manufacture. This pur-
suit required the labour of a great number of people for
about six weeks or two months in each year ; and as it
was necessary to provide them with the means of living
during the whole year, small crofts were assigned to
many persons in situations favourable for the manufac-
ture, which, though not alone able to maintain a family,
might, with the wages of the manufacture, suffice for
that end. When a change in the fiscal regulations de-
stroyed this manufacture, the people engaged in it were
thrown out of employment, and had they not been
separated by habits and language from the majority of
the population of the kingdom, they would no doubt
have gradually dispersed and sought other occupations.
But having little intercourse with other districts, which
were to them a foreign 'Country, they clung to their
native soil after the manufacture in which they had been
engaged was abandoned. Their crofts were then insuffi-
cient to afford them subsistence. Emigration somewhat
retarded the increase of numbers, but the emigrants were
the more prosperous of the tenants and crofters, not the
persons who had difficulty in supporting themselves at
tome. The proprietors, anxious to check the redundant
population, and to increase their rents so materially
reduced by the decay of the kelp manufacture, let the
lands vacated by the emigrants to tacksmen, who were
able, by their large capital and the new system of sheep-
farming, to pay higher rents than the crofters could
offer. These increased rents were at the same time col-
lected at less cost, with less trouble, and with more
certainty. The proprietors were thus led to take every
opportunity of converting lands held by crofters into
large farms for tacksmen, planting the displaced crofters
on fishing crofts and crofts on waste land, and thus the
crofters who had supplanted the first race of tacksmen
were in turn supplanted by a new race.
In the beginning of the present century many of the
landlords in the Hebrides devoted themselves vigorously
to the improvement of both land and people, and, in
general, with great success. The chief improver at an
early date, both as to extent and energy, was Campbell of
Islay, who so revolutionised the agricultural character
of that island between 1820 and 1840, that, from a con-
dition of being obliged to import grain to the value of
£1200 annually, it passed into a condition of being able
to supply a sufficiency of grain for all the Hebrides and
the Western Highlands. Mr Clark, of Ulva, went to Bel-
gium in 1S46, in order to study the system of petite cul-
ture, so that he might introduce it on his estate in the
Hebrides, but he says — ' The result of my investigation
was to convince me that the Belgian system was alto-
gether unsuited for Ulva or any other part of tho
Hebrides ;' and, indeed, though the croft system is in
most cases precisely a system of spade husbandry, the
results will always differ widely from those obtained on
the Continent with better soil and a finer climate. The
peasant proprietary which generally accompanies spade
husbandry seems, for the same reason, equally unsuit-
able, for Mr Walker, who, as one of the assistant-com-
missioners on the Royal Commission on Agriculture,
instituted extensive inquiries into the state of the
Hebrides, and had ample opportunity of studying the
subject, gives, in a minute and painstaking report, pub-
lished in a blue-book in 1881, the following very decided
opinion : — ' Peasant proprietors on such islands would be
a failure ; a large and rich proprietary willing to spend
for the benefit of property and people is what is most
required, and will do most good.' Pre-eminently such a
proprietor as Mr Walker seems to desiderate was the
late Sir James Matheson, the greatest benefactor of the
Hebrides in the present age, who, in 1844, purchased
the vast estate of Lewis from the representatives of the
last Earl of Seaforth. For 417,416 acres the sum of
£190,000 was paid, and since then a sum of over
£400,000 has been expended in rebuilding a number of
houses, of which there are altogether about 3500 on the
estate, in making 170 miles of good road, in constructing
roads and draining, etc. The heaviness of some items
of outlay may be imagined when it is mentioned that
all the wood, lime, and slate had to be imported spe-
cially, while £4000 was spent in relieving cases of dis-
tress during the famine in 1846 and 1S47 ; and £10,069
in aiding families to emigrate in 1851, '52, '55, '62, '63,
during which years 2231 persons left, mostly for Canada.
The present proprietrix of the estate is Lady Matheson.
When Sir James purchased Lewis in 1844, it was in a
very primitive condition, and, notwithstanding all his
efforts for its improvement, it is still far from occupying
the position it might. Were the crofters only energetic
much might be done by the proper trenching of the
gravelly or clay -gravel soils exposed by the cutting and
removal of peat for fuel. The clay-gravel is difficult
to drain, and heavy, but the lighter parts would yield
good crops, while the mixture of decomposed rock soils
with moss makes land that yields excellent natural
grass. The ordinary crops of the Hebrides are oats
(mostly the black variety), here, rye (in a few of the
sandy districts), turnips, and potatoes. The latter hold
indeed a similar place in the Hebrides to what they do
in Ireland, and constitute four-fifths of the food of the
inhabitants, and so any failure in the potato crop is
always followed by severe distress, sometimes almost
universal, and, if accompanied by any other failures,
leads to necessity for direct aid from without. This was
strikingly shown in 1846 and 1847, after the first out-
break of the potato disease ; and again in the present
winter (18S2-83) distress has been exceptionally severe,
as not only was the potato crop a failure in 1882, but
also the East Coast fishing, on which so many of the
crofters largely depend, while at the same time a violent
gale, in the autumn, utterly destroyed the crop just as
it was ready for being cut.
The agricultural condition of the two groups of the
Inner Hebrides may be gathered from the condition of
Islat, Rum, and Skte, for which reference may be made
to these articles. In the Outer Hebrides there is
hardly any such thing as regular scientific cultivation,
as no rotation is observed except upon a few of the
larger farms, and, indeed, on some crofts where the
whole produce is necessary for the subsistence of man
and beast, no part of the arable land has been under
grass or allowed to rest for more than 100 years, while
in many cases the seaweed, which is almost the only
manure employed, is very exhausting to the soil.
Where rotation is observed, the shift is either five, six,
or seven, as best suits the particular case. In Lewis
there are 36 farms with a rental of £4878, lis. 10d.,
and of these 10 are altogether pasture, while in 14 a
few acres are cultivated for winter keep of stock, and ia
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