Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

532
PERTHSHIRE.
any natural variety, which has been worked up by
long tillage and rich manuring into a fertile vegetable
mould, is, in most situations, so greatly interspersed
with other soils, that notices of its occurrence, unless
they would be insufferably minute, must be very
general. A fine bank of loamy soil, of considerable
length, extends from Rednock-house to Blair-Drum-
mond. A long tract of loam, interspersed in differ-
ent places with till or clay, extends behind the haughs
of Strathearn; and a stripe of fine loam stretches
behind the haughs of the Wester Powfrom Methven
to Innerpeffrey. The same class of soil occurs often,
though not in continuous tracts, around Kier, Muthill,
Auchterarder, Dunning, and many other places.
Loamy soil prevails in all the district between Dun-
keld and Perth, especially southward from Auch-
tergaven ; and it occupies a large area, but is various
in colour and quality throughout Strathmore Proper,
or the vale of the Isla. A rich mould, loose and
tender, which easily yields to the plough, covers
nearly all the south-east face of the Sidlaws On
the declivities of by far the greater part of the hills,
a strong stiff till abounds. A poor kind of till covers
all the north face of the Ochils, from Dunblane to
Abernethy, a tract of at least 20 miles. A wet, un-
kindly till, skirts all the moor between the vales of
the Teith and the Forth, and terminates only a few
miles above the junction of the rivers; and it also
covers a large extent of land on both sides of Men-
teith-loch. A cold, deep, spouty till soil occupies
the north-west brow of the Sidlaws, and, in general,
has a prevailing place on the northern declivities of
hills. A red kind of till, quite superior in quality to
most which occurs, and capable of high cultivation,
is found around Auchterarder and Dunning, and
covers the face of a bank above the public road from
Methven to Femtown, and carpets many considerable
patches of sloping land which lie upon rocks, easily
pulverized by the alternate action of frost and thaw,
and of rain and wind. A pale-coloured till, more
barren and more difficult to be drained than the red,
and the most reluctant of all the Perthshire soils to
reward the labours of the husbandman, spreads over
the face of most of the schistose hills which are por-
ous with springs, and not very abrupt in descent, and
may be observed on both sides of the Allan, at Kin-
buck, in the glen of Condie, in the upper grounds of
Culross and Tulliallan, in the hollows among the
Sidlaws, in Glenshee, Glenquiech, Glenalmond, and
less or more on the lower declivities of hills in all
the glens of the Highlands. An uncommonly rich
tilly soil, consisting chiefly, of calcareous matter, oc-
curs in some parts of the Highlands, superincumbent
on limestone rock, whence it derives its excellence.
— Light free soil, easily pulverized, and consisting
principally of sand or gravel, is the most frequent in
Perthshire. This soil prevails in all the valleys
north of Alyth, Blairgowrie, and Dunkeld, and west
of Crieff, Callander, and Gartmore, except where, at
the confluence of streams, or in parts subject to in-
undation, baughs have been formed, or on the slop-
ing face of hills where the soil is spouty, or on the
confines of moors, where the soil is a mixture of peat
earth : and it occurs in considerable tracts at the
head of the Allan, along the Machony, at the foot of
the Ruthven and the May, near Muthill, round the
moor of Orchill, on both sides of the Almond in
Monzie, at Crieff, at Monivaird, from Doune to Cal-
lander, betwixt Cupar-Angus and Meigle, betwixt
Scone and Cargill, north and west of Auchtergaven
on one side of the Tay, and in the neighbourhood of
Delvin on the other, on the ridge of high ground
between the Pow and the Earn, and in parts of the
parishes of Rattray, Blairgowrie, Muckart, and Glen-
devon. Land with this soil is, for the most part,
altogether incapable of being constantly cropped with
grain, but yields excellent green crops, and makes
good returns in grass Mosses of various dimensions,
of various depths, and of various degrees of firmness,
corresponding to the time they have had for acquir-
ing solidity, expand on some parts of almost every
flat, and on not a few slopes of the higher hills. In
the Highlands, they are so frequent that to enume-
rate them would be intolerably irksome. In the
Lowlands, they may be viewed as concentrating all
their interest in the famous Flanders Moss in the
vale of the Forth, originally computed at 10,000
acres, but the scene of those novel, remarkable, and
extensive georgical operations which have worked
the localities of Blair-Drummond and Kincardine
into supereminent fame among reclaimers of waste
lands. Moorland, or a thin stratum of moss superin-
cumbent on gravel or sand, occurs in the moor of
Orchill, computed to be about 10,000 acres; the
Sheriff Moor, computed to be about two-thirds of
that extent ; the moor of Dollary, stretching east-
ward to the vicinity of Perth ; the moor of Methven ;
the moor of Thorn, south of Dunkeld ; the moor of
Alyth, very extensive ; the moor around Dunsinnan,
both broad and long ; and some moor on the high
grounds of Culross, and at Dalganross, Doune, and
Callander. But a large aggregate area of these lands
has been the scene of spirited improvements, and now
continues moorland only in name.
The proprietors of Perthshire are of all the differ-
ent ranks of landowners known in Britain, from the
nobleman of vast possessions, to the peasant owner
of a few roods. The commoners are distinguished
above those of most counties by the extent of their
property, the excellence of their education, the polish
of their manners, the enlargedness of their views, and
the warmth and enlightenment of their love of coun-
try. Those among them who are not engaged in the
arduous duties of legislation, government, law, or
military affairs, for the most part live upon their
estates, and show a pleasure in embellishing their
residence, ornamenting their grounds, and superin-
tending or inciting operations of improvement by
their tenants. Estates, as in most of Scotland, con-
sist, as to their tenure, of superiorities or baronial
rights, reserved under the name of feu-duties, or of
the gross possession of landed property, which is
either freehold, or held in feu from a superior. A
great proportion of the county is freehold ; yet many
of the small proprietors hold in feu. The bounda-
ries of estates in the Highlands are principaUy brooks,
the water-shed of mountains, and strong stone-walls
without mortar, provincially called dry stone-dykes ;
and, in the Lowlands, substantial walls of quarried
stone, open ditches of such width as to prevent the
depredations of cattle, and fences of hedge and ditch,
with flanking lines or belts of plantation. The farm-
houses, instead of the mean hovels of a former gene-
ration, without light, and air, and ventilation, are
now very generally substantial and neat two-story
houses, constructed of stone and lime, roofed with
blue slate, and disposed in methods of commodious-
ness and comfort Exclusive of diminutive posses-
sions called pendicles, which are small portions of
land allotted by farmers to cottagers and servants,
farms which may be regarded as arable, range, as to
extent, between the extremes of 30 and 500 acres,
and farms under a regular system of husbandry, aver-
age from 100 to 300 acres. In the Carse of Cowrie,
the lower parts of Strathearn, the district in Strath-
tay between Perth and Dunkeld, and Strathmore or
the vale of the Isla, especially about Meigle, some of
the farms comprehend 400, and a few even 500 Scot-
tish acres, all arable land, and the richest in the
county. Large tracts of grass, or pasture-ground,